So, knowledge, and precise budgetting along with strategy, am I summarizing right? I must admit I find it cool. But I don't see why you find simulators doesn't help much for the task? Doesn't it help to test strategies before you make them real, after all? Anyway, about the short term goal, how much days, and would you redefine the strategy each time, meaning each day for example, you assign your investment objectives? Do you rule out long term in your advises or it's just not best for newcomers, or it needs less attention? I would try to redefine it and refine it every time but then.
Yes, I think that is a really good idea. Practice investing until you know what you are doing is a good idea or many people. There are various investment games that can be played that will give you a feel for the market. It is just one of the things that you might look to do to make certain you have a feel for investing and the various components involved.
Thanks for the information and the confirmation. The investment is a complicated thing and to always win, you have to operate strategies, and prepare to not be too much hungry to be enough prudent to be relevant and stay enough time in investment world. While simulators or games are a good thing, I would say studying is really welcome, by reading books as said earlier (I think these books advises are useful by the way!), you can also try to study how previous investments played to companies, how markets behaved in the past because some things or patterns repeat, despite the future isn't predictable.
It really depends what are your goals. If you're going to trade, then yeah, the finance world is pretty complicated. On the other hand, if you want to reach financial independence, then... the things get a little bit easier. There are a lot of good articles on this subject, but basically, you should be ok with obtaining average results from bond funds, index funds, rental properties and so on. They offer less risk, but the "rewards" are smaller too.
But what's the real difference between trading and financial independence? What's financial independence? It's when you no longer work outside of buying assets/bond/etc. and you can still live out of it? It's when you earn a threshold of money? I must admit I don't know what you exactly mean behind that. However, I do agree that the less profits you expect, the less hard work you will need to do. But that also depends of the amount of money you have in reserve: after all, if you only need thousands of dollars a month and you get it from investments of $XXX,XXX account, you will be less eager for better profits.
If you've got a million dollars liquid and little or no debt, and can get by on 2-3 grand net or so a month (maybe a bit more), you're financially independent. If you've got 5 million liquid, lots of debt, and need $25-30k net a month or more to pay those bills and otherwise get by on, you're not financially independent yet and need to keep on working. At that point, I'd say look at trying to pay off that debt, reduce the extravagant spending, and even consider downsizing and selling off whatever assets you have that are not necessary. A good rule of thumb is to take whatever retirement/liquid assets you have and divide them by 25. Divide that number by 12, and see if you can get by each month on that number. You'll probably also need to factor in taxes, unless that money is sitting in muni bonds or a Roth IRA.
I think not to get sucked into buying a stock, just because a so called expert has touted it. The stock market is unpredicatable and investing in a stock just because someone "says to" is probably the wrong thing to do. I think doing your own research and consulting a variety of sources is the way to get a good bargain.
