bluntmoney.com

Learning about investing can be like learning to speak a foreign language. There are all kinds of investing terms out there that can be pretty confusing. There are mid caps, large blends, P/Es, and iced quad venti vanilla nonfat whip caramel macchiatos. (Ok, so that last is an attempt at a Starbucks order…) It can all be a little intimidating.

Except in the case of investing money, “ordering the wrong thing” could result in losing money, instead of just getting the wrong kind of drink or a funny look.

I’ve found it helpful to compare learning about the stock market to learning to speak a foreign language. Learning a foreign language is something I’ve done before, so it gives me a starting point. The process goes something like this: Where can I get a dictionary? What are the most-used terms? Is there a native speaker I can hang out with to get a real feel for how to speak the language?

Morningstar.com and using “define:[term]” in Google have given me some dictionary-type help. Reading blogs, articles, and books have given me an idea of some of the frequently-used terms that would be helpful to know.

So that’s where I am now, learning about what I need to learn about. And since I personally learn best by doing, I’ve done a little playing around with investments as well. Since explaining things in writing is often a good way for me to learn as well, I may start some kind of “demystifying investing” guide for myself.

Now I just need that native speaker and some daily practice…

• Insurance Companies May Not Be The Healthcare Cost Enemy Farm and construction machinery, Hershey sweets, Yahoo!, railroads, and Tupperware.  What do these things all have in common?  They're all more profitable than the health...
• Electronic Transfers - A Convenient and Safe Method For Transferring Funds A reader writes: I am concerned about using the Internet to transfer funds from my bank account to my savings or investment account. I read...
• Finance Thoughts For The Day I didn't post yesterday because I spent a lot of time reading other blogs.  There were so many insightful posts that really resonated with my own current thoughts.  I really...