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How I Learned to Invest (part 2)
Next step: focused investing
This is a follow-on to part one, from last week, in which I covered my path into, and through, index investing. This week, I’ll explain how I became a more capable and sophisticated investor.
After my return from a ten-year vacation, I started earning again and saving money, particularly after I began using YNAB (you need a budget), which enabled me to effortlessly have visibility and control of my money flow. I was able to break the paycheck-to-paycheck cycle (every dollar we spend now came in many months ago), and to develop a sense of financial security, creating the psychological space that enabled me to start calmly considering long-term investing outside of my retirement account. I recently wrote about how I finally got control of my money using YNAB. You can get a free month of YNAB using my referral link (I’ll also get a free month). YNAB makes money allocation conscious.
When the stock market had a relatively brief mini-crash starting in February 2020 (it only really got back on its feet in November of that year), like many others, my interest in investing was renewed. After buying a few stocks, including Zoom (ticker: ZM) in April, before its price rose by five times (+400%) in seven months, I realized that I didn’t really know what I was doing and I started looking for resources…
