How To Get People Involved
While everyone who finds their way to this site and stays is obviously interested in the financial markets, investing and making money doing it, the same cannot be said for everybody. Some of us devour financial media in all forms as often and as thoroughly as we can, but it can be frustrating sometimes because not everyone around is as interested or as knowledgeable as we are. In the case of some people, it a genuine lack of interest or a case of "I don't want to know," but in some people it may simply be a lack of knowledge. Especially when it comes to family and friends, most of them would like nothing more than to share in our interests and be able to discuss them with us, oftentimes the true reason behind the lack of apparent interest is their financial ignorance.
It can be frustrating and even lonely for people, such as ourselves, who would like to discuss the financial world, and get our friends and loved ones involved in what is a large part of our lives. Watching CNBC or Bloomberg is great, but if the person has no base level of knowledge it will make the person feel confused or dumb, neither of which encourages repeat viewership. In addition to the facts that these are topics we are personally interested in, these topics, themes, and words associated with them have now become part of the everyday vocabulary and have become foci of conversations on an almost daily basis: quantitative easing, bond yields, sovereign debt, and currency wars. In addition to being able to better converse with us, people who take it upon themselves to get educated about these topics are helping themselves out quite a bit as well.
With all that being said, I humbly present a short list of investing books that I think are a great place for anybody to start if they are looking to build a solid foundation of financial knowledge. The following books are presented in no particular order:
The Intelligent Investor, Benjamin Graham
Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits, Phillip Fisher
A Random Walk Down Wall Street - Burton G. Malkiel
Common Sense on Mutual Funds, John Bogle
Irrational Exuberance, Robert J. Schiller
The Interpretation of Financial Statements. Benjamin Graham
Obviously just because your friends and loved ones start reading, or even finish reading these books does not mean that they will become stock market gurus instantly. What this means, however, is that now they will able to at least to start holding conversations with you about the topics and issues that interest you. The more these people know about these topics, the more likely they are to make intelligent financial decisions and become conversant in this parlance.
What is better than discussing what you love and care about with the people that you care about?
Let's get reading! If anyone has any other suggestions feel free to add or comment below.
Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.