Читать книгу Investing For Dummies - Eric Tyson - Страница 12

IN THIS CHAPTER

Defining investing

Seeing how stocks, real estate, and small business ownership build long-term wealth

Understanding the role of lending and other investments

Knowing where not to invest your money

In many parts of the world, life’s basic necessities — food, clothing, shelter, healthcare, and taxes — consume the entirety of people’s meager earnings. Although some Americans do truly struggle for basic necessities, the bigger problem for other Americans is that they consider just about everything — eating out, driving new cars, hopping on airplanes for vacation — to be a necessity.

I’ve taken it upon myself (using this book as my tool) to help you recognize that investing — that is, putting your money to work for you — is a necessity. If you want to accomplish important personal and financial goals, such as owning a home, starting your own business, helping your kids through college (and spending more time with them when they’re young), retiring comfortably, and so on, you must know how to invest well.

It’s been said, and too often quoted, that the only certainties in life are death and taxes. To these two certainties I add one more: being confused by and ignorant about investing. Because investing is a confounding activity, you may be tempted to look with envious eyes at those people in the world who appear to be savvy with money and investing. Remember that everyone starts with the same level of financial knowledge: none! No one was born knowing this stuff! The only difference between those who know and those who don’t is that those who know have either devoted their time and energy to acquiring useful knowledge about the investment world or have had their parents instill a good base of investing knowledge.