finance books / podcasts

ozaudio

ozaudio

ozaudio

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ive just watched a podcast on youtube and before i go spending time on reading any books or watching any more podcasts on finance, is there anything in these books that you cant simply learn by just browisng forums or youtube. anybody who writes a book will want to make money so are going to big it up regardless of weather its correct information or not! the podcast i just watched was called

No. 1 Finance Author: Do This To Become A Millionaire On A £25,000 Salary​


im have been saving for years, but nothing was in anything other than a couple of standard bank accounts / saving accounts. only started my pension 2 years ago which im very angry about as i missed all that free money from work. i have quite abit of free time so if there is anything i can legit learn from podcasts or books im interested but i dont want to go spending a lot of time on something thats just filled with a load of incorrect information
 
ozaudio said:
only started my pension 2 years ago which im very angry about as i missed all that free money from work. i have quite abit of free time so if there is anything i can legit learn from podcasts or books im interested but i dont want to go spending a lot of time on something thats just filled with a load of incorrect information
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How did that happen - you're legally supposed to be auto-enrolled in a pension scheme, you have to actively unenroll.

I'm not sure you're going to get much from the books or youtube channels with hyped up titles, I think the UKPersonalFinance thing above is probably useful and stuff like the Motley Fool book or Financial Times guide to investing.

The tl;dr equity investments ought to basically be regular contributions into a tracker fund. If you are going to invest in individual equities find a cheap broker and just stick with large companies. As you get older you want more and more of your portfolio in fixed-income securities rather than equities.

Don't get into small-cap stocks or crypto or at least if you do only do so with a small portion of your portfolio that you're comfortable with potentially losing.
 
If you desperately want to become a millionaire then the way to do it will be by focusing on how to get paid more in your career or starting your own business, i.e. focusing on your own ability to generate money.

All the investment stuff is interesting but won't make you rich that quickly. There is good stuff out there, but it takes a lot of sifting. The internet and YouTube has all the info, but it takes more finding, the good books can be entertaining and a more concentrated source of advice.

Really, you have to take a lot in so that you get your own sense of what's worth it and what's not. That takes years, but if you enjoy it then it's all good.
 
its abit of both, i want to make sure im making decent choices now so when i retire i dont die from cold come the first winter.

as for only starting my pension 2 years ago, i opted out when it was first set up, me been a retard didnt think about it and decided at the time id rather have that money there and then and save it my self, so i suppose i do still have the money, i just dont have the other half from my employer...
 
ozaudio said:
as for only starting my pension 2 years ago, i opted out when it was first set up, me been a retard didnt think about it and decided at the time id rather have that money there and then and save it my self, so i suppose i do still have the money, i just dont have the other half from my employer...
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What is your housing situation? These days there might be an argument for reducing payments into a pension to save for a house deposit.

What else do you want to know about, in particular?
 
radderfire said:
What is your housing situation? These days there might be an argument for reducing payments into a pension to save for a house deposit.

What else do you want to know about, in particular?
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i have a house deposit, about 10 years worth of savings, its a lot.. i could buy a house cash if i want a **** box. my rent right now is actually whats considered very cheap, the interest from my savings covers my rent and council tax every month lol
 
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I would say your first focus should be getting a property of your own. Eliminate the need to pay rent as soon as you can. This will save you more money than doing anything else in the long term. You should watch the housing market and could try timing the market; however, house prices never really go down, they just plateau and then go up again. So, I would say try and get on the property ladder as soon as you can, as it sounds as if you could. Once you've done that, worry about the rest.
 
radderfire said:
I would say your first focus should be getting a property of your own. Eliminate the need to pay rent as soon as you can. This will save you more money than doing anything else in the long term. You should watch the housing market and could try timing the market; however, house prices never really go down, they just plateau and then go up again. So, I would say try and get on the property ladder as soon as you can, as it sounds as if you could. Once you've done that, worry about the rest.
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Not true in some cases… some people insist that renting is cheaper long term and you get a better rate of return once you factor in maintenance and lost of earning is you invested the money instead.

In my case it would have been so far (8 years).. I was paying £550 a month rent and if I used my house deposit, the cost of buying, mortgage (which was £600 now £1000) and cost of maintenance, in to the S&P 500 it would have seen gains of 16.5% over that period.

It really does depend on the circumstances.. houses are illiquid assets, you’re basically either renting a house or renting the money to leverage. There’s also the old saying that what makes one generation rich won’t make the following generation rich… simply because the previous generation would have maxed out the gains.

What buying does give is a sense of long term security.. less so now a days with share ownerships, lease holds and loans against the property itself.

IMHO, and what I do.. is just to edge your bets. Get a place where it costs less than 50% of your monthly income, plan to stay long term and invest the rest of the cash.
 
I’ve read lots of books and view/listened to 1000s of financial podcasts/videos… general financial literacy gets very same-y, as it’s targeted at everyone.

A lot of the books for general financial advice are just repeating the same advice in a different way, but if you want specific information on how an area of finance works.. I believe you need to read.. also there’s thousands of years of experience written in the books that you can learn from.

For podcasts and videos, it’s the same as books.. general advice gets to be the same and your rewatching the same information, presented in a different way, which may be good for it to sink in.

There’s a YouTube channel call the Swedish investor (along with others) who does break downs of books, it may be worth watching a video about the book or using shortform or blinkist to get a quick understanding of what the book is like before reading it. But books are not that expensive, I see them as a form of entertainment and it’s cheaper than a night out.

What videos are great for is quick reactions/feed back to current affairs.. why did this share tank.. why did the market react that way to that news.. but it depends where the info is coming from, and its best to get it from someone with experience in the financial sector, rather just a random person.

But no one should be telling you to do xyz or buy/invest in abc. Your financial situation is personal to you; goals, risk appetite, debt management and reaction to scenarios. Which will change over time, it’s just a case of getting a good base level of understanding and gaining experience then customising the “advice” to yourself.
 
slinxy said:
Not true in some cases… some people insist that renting is cheaper long term and you get a better rate of return once you factor in maintenance and lost of earning is you invested the money instead.

In my case it would have been so far (8 years).. I was paying £550 a month rent and if I used my house deposit, the cost of buying, mortgage (which was £600 now £1000) and cost of maintenance, in to the S&P 500 it would have seen gains of 16.5% over that period.

It really does depend on the circumstances.. houses are illiquid assets, you’re basically either renting a house or renting the money to leverage. There’s also the old saying that what makes one generation rich won’t make the following generation rich… simply because the previous generation would have maxed out the gains.

What buying does give is a sense of long term security.. less so now a days with share ownerships, lease holds and loans against the property itself.

IMHO, and what I do.. is just to edge your bets. Get a place where it costs less than 50% of your monthly income, plan to stay long term and invest the rest of the cash.
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You could also live in a van and have zero outgoing living costs and save a heap of money very quickly.

I have a young lad in his early twenties at work. He bought a Van for 20k and uses that in his days off. He lives in a lorry 4 days a week so has 0 housing costs during that time. He doesn't plan to do it forever but has saved 50+k in two years minus the 20k he borrowed for the van which is obviously capital he can get back. Guy has his head pretty screwed on tbh. A lot more than I did at his age. What he chooses to do with that money is up to him.

My point is there are plenty of ways to get rich. You do not need some grifter selling you some lifestyle book to tell you that. Find a job that pays well and figure out a way to get there.
 
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Also I would say it is worth self-learning so that you understand personal finance in general and don't get sold something you don't need.

I would also never pay for a "how to make money from x" course, because the way these people are making money is by selling you courses!
 
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adam cool dude said:
You could also live in a van and have zero outgoing living costs and save a heap of money very quickly.

I have a young lad in his early twenties at work. He bought a Van for 20k and uses that in his days off. He lives in a lorry 4 days a week so has 0 housing costs during that time. He doesn't plan to do it forever but has saved 50+k in two years minus the 20k he borrowed for the van which is obviously capital he can get back. Guy has his head pretty screwed on tbh. A lot more than I did at his age. What he chooses to do with that money is up to him.

My point is there are plenty of ways to get rich. You do not need some grifter selling you some lifestyle book to tell you that. Find a job that pays well and figure out a way to get there.
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Yeah you can stay at home with the parents, if you can bear living to their rules.... look after them when they are old and maybe you will inheritant their house or part of it at some point.
Someone I knew lived in a caravan in a farmers shed and worked part time for the farmer while at uni, so that they wouldn't be debt when they left.
My brother in law used to work with something to do with motorways management where he spent four nights a week in motorway hotels and three nights a week sleeping in his car or tent, that's fine for him as he was a surfer and lived in cornwall so there was plenty of caravan parks to stay over night in.

Honesty if I was that wealthy, I would just live in hotels till the time I couldn't travel anymore.

The main thing about wealth building is that the out goings needs to be less than the incomings, you can try to max your incoming by investing in yourself and reduce your outgoings mainly by budgeting.
Then the extra cash is all about investing it in a way that you can handle.. some people can only use banks savings accounts as they just can't handle seeing a drop in the market, while others are fine losing 1000s in an options calls.
some people are fine loading up interest free credit cards. While my debt management is great, I just can't stand being over the level of card debt where I can't pay it all off in one go if I had to.
 
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