How does the stock market actually work?
I know you buy low and sell high, but how does the actual mechanism work? Who decides the price of a stock? What happens when I place an order — who am I buying from? What's the difference between the NYSE and NASDAQ? Can regular people really compete with Wall Street professionals?
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Pay off your highest-interest debt first — that's almost always credit cards at 18-22%. There's no investment that reliably beats paying off an 18% credit card. It's a guaranteed return. Knock that out before you even think about the stock market.
4 Answers
Pay off your highest-interest debt first — that's almost always credit cards at 18-22%. There's no investment that reliably beats paying off an 18% credit card. It's a guaranteed return. Knock that out before you even think about the stock market.
I made this exact mistake when I was younger and it cost me. Learn from others instead of learning the hard way. The personal finance section of any bookstore has dozens of books — they mostly say the same sensible things for a reason.
Talk to a fee-only financial advisor, not one who earns commissions on products they sell you. The commission-based advisors have an incentive to recommend products that benefit them, not you. A fee-only advisor charges a flat rate.
Read 'The Millionaire Next Door' and 'A Random Walk Down Wall Street.' Those two books taught me more about money than anything else. The library has them for free. Most people who look rich are actually drowning in debt — real wealth is quiet.
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