Preface
This book is intended for those who need a very basic introduction to investing and saving for retirement. It's an intro to “financial literacy” in the area of investments, and is not intended to provide you with definitive advice, or delve deeply into the theories of finance. This book is intended to provide clear and concise information about this subject matter to normal people who want to retire one day. Being an introductory primer, this book focuses on investment funds, including actively managed mutual funds and exchange traded funds that track a stock index. It also emphasizes selecting a high quality and well diversified investment portfolio, i.e. not “putting all of your eggs in one basket.”
This book is short, by design, so that you don't feel like the financial firehose was just turned on you. Hopefully, you can quickly get moving in a positive direction to make some important decisions more quickly than with a 300 page book. Sometimes these subjects can be confusing and intimidating, but this can be avoided through learning some of the basics of investing that the investment companies won't necessarily offer up front.
The book focuses in on some key information that you can use to quickly begin deciding how you will plan to retire. The most vital information that you can use to get started is presented first. Later chapters provide additional information that you may find more useful if you want to do your own investment research. Where indicated, portions of this book are reprinted from government sources providing some good information regarding investing.
While not specifically stated in each chapter, if you are seeking to make an investment decision in the near future and have questions about what to do, it's usually a good idea to seek out the advice of a professional. This may be Certified Financial Planner, Registered Investment Advisor, attorney, or accountant knowledgable of these topics. Other types of investment professionals who're paid based on their sales can also provide useful information, but are not usually required to point out better alternatives to what they're offering you.
This book is provided free of charge for personal, non-profit or educational use, and is not permitted to be sold for any purpose by other parties. Feel free to redistribute information in this book to your friends and relatives, and please consider making a $5 donation or more to one of the charities listed below: