Investing 101: the library

Asset allocation, fees, taxes on investments, the HSA, reading a stock page and a 10-K, order types, crashes and recoveries, checking a broker, and the mistakes that cost the most.

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⚖️ Asset allocation and rebalancingIn 30 seconds: Asset allocation is how you split your money between stocks, bonds and cash. That split decides most of how bumpy your ride will be. People…
🧾 What fees really cost youIn 30 seconds: Fees come out every year whether your investments go up or down, and they compound against you. On $100,000 growing for 30 years, the…
🪣 Lump sum or dollar-cost averaging?In 30 seconds: If you have a lump of money ready to invest for the long run, putting it all in at once has historically come out ahead about two-thirds of…
🧮 How investments are taxedIn 30 seconds: In a regular brokerage account you pay tax when you sell at a gain and when you receive dividends or interest. Holding more than one year…
🩺 The HSA as an investment accountIn 30 seconds: A Health Savings Account lets you put money in before tax, invest it, and take it out tax-free for medical costs. No other account gets all…
🗂️ Which account first, and what goes whereIn 30 seconds: Two separate questions. First, which account gets your next dollar: usually the employer match, then accounts with the best tax breaks.…
🔎 How to read a stock quote pageIn 30 seconds: A quote page packs a company into a dozen numbers. Price tells you what one share costs today. Market cap tells you how big the company is.…
📑 The 10-K in 20 minutesIn 30 seconds: Every US public company files an annual report, the Form 10-K, with the SEC, and it is free on EDGAR. You don’t need to read all of it. In…
🎛️ Order types and how trades settleIn 30 seconds: A market order buys or sells right away at whatever price is available. A limit order sets the worst price you will accept and may not fill.…
💵 Dividends, key dates and DRIPsIn 30 seconds: A dividend is a cash payment a company makes to its shareholders, usually every quarter in the US. To get it you must own the shares before…
🎟️ Options basics: calls, puts and the riskIn 30 seconds: An option is a contract that gives the buyer the right, not the obligation, to buy (call) or sell (put) a stock at a set price by a set date.…
🛡️ Check your broker and adviserIn 30 seconds: Before you hand money to a brokerage or a financial professional, spend ten minutes checking them on free government tools. Know what protects…
📉 Market crashes and how long recovery tookIn 30 seconds: US stocks have fallen 25% to 57% several times since the 1970s, and 89% in the Great Depression. Every one of those drops was eventually…
🧠 The behavior gap: how investors trail their own fundsIn 30 seconds: Investors often earn less than the funds they own, because they buy after prices rise and sell after they fall. Morningstar measured this gap…
🧭 Your investing roadmap: from the first $100 to a full portfolioIn 30 seconds: Investing goes better in a set order. First a cushion and no expensive debt, then free money from an employer match, then a simple low-cost…
🧺 Simple portfolios that work: one fund, two funds, three fundsIn 30 seconds: A full portfolio can be one, two or three broad index funds. Fewer funds means less to manage but less control. More funds means a little more…
🎯 Target-date funds in depth: glide paths, fees and picking a yearIn 30 seconds: A target-date fund is a whole portfolio in one fund, named for roughly the year you expect to retire. It starts mostly in stocks and moves…
🏛️ Bond funds vs individual bonds, and duration in plain wordsIn 30 seconds: A single bond held to maturity pays back its face value on a known date, whatever happens to rates in between. A bond fund never matures, so…
🌍 International investing: why, how much and the currency effectIn 30 seconds: About two-thirds of the world’s stock market value is in US companies and about a third is elsewhere. Owning some foreign stocks spreads your…
🏘️ Real estate paths: REITs, rental property math and crowdfundingIn 30 seconds: You can own real estate through a REIT fund in a few clicks, by buying and running a rental property, or through online crowdfunding deals.…
🪙 Gold, commodities and collectibles: what they do and do not doIn 30 seconds: Gold, oil, art, coins and trading cards pay no interest, dividends or rent. Their return is only what the next buyer pays. Some people hold a…
🔐 Crypto for beginners: coins, ETFs, custody, scams and taxesIn 30 seconds: Crypto assets are digital tokens recorded on a shared ledger called a blockchain. Prices swing far more than stocks, nothing is federally…
📑 Annuities in depth: immediate, deferred, fixed, indexed and variableIn 30 seconds: An annuity is a contract with an insurance company. You pay money in, and the insurer promises growth, income for life, or both. The simple…
🤝 Choosing help: DIY, robo-adviser or financial adviserIn 30 seconds: You can run your own portfolio, pay a robo-adviser to do it automatically, or hire a person. The right choice depends on how complicated your…