Читать книгу Investing All-in-One For Dummies - Eric Tyson - Страница 11

IN THIS CHAPTER

Defining investing

Seeing how stocks and real estate build long-term wealth

Understanding the role of lending investments and cash equivalents

Knowing where to invest and get advice

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.

This book is here 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. You can add one more to these two certainties: 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. Keep in mind 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.