I’m 18 years old and want to learn how to invest my money. How do I get started?

Answer by Adena DeMonte:

1. If you have a job, start a Roth IRA. You can do this easily at a place like Vanguard Group or Sharebuilder. If you have $1000 you can put it into the Vanguard STAR fund which has a $1k minimum, which I recommend if you want to test the waters. The other funds all have $3k minimums. You can also open a Roth IRA at Sharebuilder with no minimums. It's better to invest larger amounts up front due to fees, however. You can invest up to $5k per year as long as you've made that much in the year. If you have $3k to start with you can put it into one of Vanguard's other basic and diverse index funds, or one that is set for your retirement year. Max that out for the year before you think of investing elsewhere. (If you aren't earning income then skip this step or try to earn $5k per year.)
2. if you happen to have a job with a 401(k) with a match, first put your investment money into that. Since you're 18 I'm going to guess that you don't given 401k matches are impossible to find these days, esp for younger employees, but I could be wrong. If you do have a match, once you hit your match, put the money into the Roth IRA.
3. Read  personal finance blogs. Get different perspectives on investing. I started out mostly investing in Index Funds and Exchange-Traded Funds (funds that have lots of different stocks that are similar either in size, industry or some other commonality) and have since become a stock investor — but not day trader. Mutual Funds, which are basically index funds that are managed by someone who thinks they can out smart the market, are generally expensive over the long run and not worth it. Some may perform really well, but others perform poorly, and you can perform really well and/or poorly on your own. Just don't be stupid and put all your money on any one company…
4. Don't put all of your money into any one thing or any three things. Diversify. Figure out your risk tolerance. Don't day trade unless you want to spend a lot of time learning how to do that and like a lot of risk. I don't have the time for it, so I don't do it. Even though I own ~90 shares of Apple stock, I've forced myself to purchase shares of other industries and companies at the same time. If I had put all my money on Apple, I'd be better off today, but tomorrow if the stock crashes I have plenty of other companies that, as long as there's no apocolypse, should perform ok. It seems it's a good time to invest now since the economy is still recovering. The worst time to invest is when the economy is doing really well and everyone thinks the market will keep going up.
5. Long term Capital Gains Tax — which is the rate all of your gains on your stocks and other investments will be taxed at if you leave them in your account for at least a year after purchase — isn't that bad at its current rate of 15%. If you're not making a lot of money now the % for capital gains tax may be equal to or more than your actual tax bracket. If your tax bracket is 25% or more, then the 15% will be a large benefit for saving.
6. Ask your parents, 30-somethings, and other folks older than you what they wish they knew about investing when they were 18. Take notes. Don't listen to everything they say, but find commonalities and do those things.
7. If you want to get into stock investing, sign
    up for an account on SigFig / Wikivest.com and start tracking the stock of
   companies that you think are successful. Pay attention to the company's
   Price-to-Earnings Ratio (P/E). This shows if the market is overpaying
   for a stock. You can also see if the stock is trending up or down. Of course you can never know this for sure, as if a company
    grows extremely fast a high P/E could be a good thing. Right now
   Amazon's P/E is 144, while Apple's is 17.60. While Apple seems to be
   expensive, you can tell it's not that expensive looking at the P/E
   number. There are many other stats to look at — but I think P/E is good
    to understand. It's what kept me invested in Apple when it went from
   $250 to $300, then $400, then $500 and now over $600 a share. Some
   people probably thought it was getting to expensive, but in comparision
   to other stocks, esp given it's quarter-over-quarter growth figures, it
   was (and maybe still is) cheap.

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I’m 18 years old and want to learn how to invest my money. How do I get started?

Answer by Cinjon Resnick:

I was in a similar position once. Here's what I did:

Read The Intelligent Investor by Graham. This is your go to and will give you a good frame for how to think about investing (like an owner) and how to think about the markets. Graham is considered the grandfather of value investing and was Buffett's direct teacher. Try to get the one with the Zweig commentary because it updates it for today's environment.

Then read Margin of Safety by Klarman, who has done incredibly well leading the Baupost fund since the late 80s. It expounds mostly the same ideas because Klarman follows Graham's teachings but also has his own touch that is quite different from anyone else. It's very hard to reverse engineer Klarman's plays. This book is also great because of its near current examples (early 90s).

Then one more book and that's You Can Be A Stock Market Genius by Greenblatt. Terrible name but great book because of all of the special situations (these aren't unique, but are a way of identifying specific investment plays like spin-offs or mergers) it details and how to take advantage of them / what to look for.

Ok, that's three books which should take ~2-3 months. After that, start investing in things you know and understand. If you don't understand anything, then start researching.
But while doing it, the best education you can get is to be reading the Buffett Partnership Letters and then the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Letters. These span 40+ years and are a goldmine of investing and business education. I strongly encourage this last step, especially for people new to investing and those without the time to focus on anything but their industry of choice.

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How can I better apply what I’ve learned about life?

Answer by Shikhar Agarwal:

I have this question's tab opened since more than a month! Finally my answer! I have mentioned some ways to applying stuff which directly answers "what can I do" part and indirectly "Why does this happen".

 1. Stop Procrastinating
I believe u have read about this and have also noted this down already. Didn't apply and now again reading! This is a vicious circle – break this. If you have planned to do some random act of kindness, pick one of your followers and send him 1000 credits. NOW. Or a better idea – follow me – thanks for the kindness! 😛

 2. Come out of your comfort zone
Realize that being in your comfort zone is an excuse – not a privilege. Nobody has ever scaled heights staying in that zone. Planning to use public transportation, but can't leave your car? Give your car keys to a friend and tell him to go on vacations. Yes, I mean it.

 3. Leave laziness and Be active
Take your ass off the chair! Switch off the TV. Go for a jog. Or, go to the kitchen and help your mom. Get up and clean your room. You got to be active to apply things in life!

 4. Be the change
Lot of people have this attitude –

"How does it matter if I be the change? Everyone else is same, and mine changing alone won't affect the situation"

So you read that we should not litter on roads, but still doing? I am very sorry, but you fall into this category. You have to change. You are outstanding – prove it by standing out of the crowd! 🙂

 5. Resist Temptations, or simply just cut them out!
Spending too much time on internet? Exchange your smartphone for a simple device [1]. Read that smoking is bad for health, but still cant get over it? Whenever you have the urge, tell yourself that you are not the tail of a dog (know matter what you do, it always remains bent) – and hence has the capability to change. And read this answer again 😛

 6. Ignore what others think of you
Want to go out for jogging to reduce fat, but think that people would mock you? Some would even mock you if you dont go! Want to go to a temple or dance class, but the very thought of people mocking scare you? Well dont care about these things – its your life! Remember:

First they ignore you, then they ridicule you, then they fight you, and then you win – Mahatma Gandhi

 7. Motivate yourself
watch movies like Chak De, Rudy, etc. Read biographies of Lincoln, Gandhiji or check this answer – Life: What are the greatest stories of triumph over tragedy? . Realize that to achieve something, you have to get motivated – either internally or externally [2], which brings me to the most important point:

 8. Know Thyself – THE most Important Thing
Forget everything. Sit. Relax. Introspect. Deep dive within and understand yourself. Why aren't you applying all this stuff? Is it laziness? or lack of inspiration? Or just pure ignorance? Understand yourself, find the enemies within and then fire missiles on them. I have mentioned some of these above. For rest, make indigenous weapons! Or mention the factor in comments – I would think about those and modify this answer!

Happy Implementing!

---

[1] Balaji's answer to What is it like to downgrade from a smartphone to a feature phone?
[2] Psychology: How do you rein in the mind, hold up and move on when you are at the lowest phase of your life?

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At age 25, would you pursue a good paying corporate job that makes you unhappy or a hobby that makes you happy but has no guarantee to pa…

Answer by Neil Kandalgaonkar:

I don't agree with how you define your choices.

First of all, you can change this dilemma into a more positive choice, by bringing "the bills" into play. Control your costs! There are many more possibilities if you don't get sucked into debt or a mortgage that requires a high corporate salary. (If you're in debt, your top priority may be to get out of it ASAP, which will modify the choices below.)

Next – "hobby" versus "job" is the wrong way to think about it. If you are going to focus on your "hobby", it's actually going to become your "job". Many an entrepreneur has been foiled this way – they loved baking pies, not running a pie factory, but now they're stuck behind a calculator doing payroll.

You can only know if you should be the salaried pie baker, or the entepreneurial pie boss, by knowing yourself.

And this is hard! I sympathize greatly with you – at age 25, if you've done the standard educational track we prescribe to kids, you probably know almost nothing about yourself. You've spent twenty years learning how to adapt yourself rapidly to the arbitrary demands of this course or that course. Even extra-curricular activities these days are highly prescribed and achievement-oriented, so they may not have illuminated who you really are.

So you may need to do something to figure this out. It's not wrong to take a year or two outside the corporate or student track – as long as you spend time trying on different roles, or exploring things you've always wondered about.

This is the main reason why corporate jobs are so alienating – you're working on some large scale thing and investing only a tiny sliver of your talents.

So work on something smaller where you invest the whole you. Maybe it is at your corporate job – if you're a natural wheeler-dealer, maybe you talk them into entrusting you with a lot of autonomy on a small project all your own. Or maybe it is that hobby you discuss – most people need to go outside the corporate world to get something where they can invest all of themselves.

But you know, it barely matters. I don't care if it's a student painter franchise, a Burning Man art group, a cross-country road trip, a rock band, seducing as many members of the appropriate sex as possible, learning a martial art to competitive levels, anything. Anything that requires you to rely on yourself and all your talents will show you who you really are.

A useful way to tell if you're on the right track: you accumulate stories worth telling.

Once your choices are clarified, try to design your life accordingly.

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At age 25, would you pursue a good paying corporate job that makes you unhappy or a hobby that makes you happy but has no guarantee to pa…

Answer by Jon Davis:

Hobby.

This isn't a follow your dreams speech.

At 27 I had a corporate job that was all right. I didn't enjoy the work and had no passion for what I did.

At the same time I was doing a lot of writing. It was just my hobby. Then I really started to find I had a real talent for it. Eventually I got noticed which led to me getting a lot of attention.

Eventually, through my writing, enough doors were opened that I was offered a great job. Of course this wouldn't have come around if I didn't also have corporate experience, but would never have happened if I didn't follow what I truly loved spending my free time doing. Now I work at a place where both my business and writing skills are important, the pay and benefits are much better and I love my job.

Long story short, don't quit your day job, but focus on the thing you would want to do for the next 20-30 years. Being good at both will eventually open some pretty awesome doors.

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At age 25, would you pursue a good paying corporate job that makes you unhappy or a hobby that makes you happy but has no guarantee to pa…

Answer by Oliver Emberton:

Your question is the problem. Stop making big decisions and focus on closing the gap with where you want to be.

A successful life is not made of easy, clean cut choices. It looks like this:

Sadly, far too many look like this:

Now I know this sounds obvious, but consider. Have you ever seen a guy desperately enamoured with a girl, but he can't bear to talk to her? Or someone who wants to get fit, but they won't step in a gym? How about someone who wants better career options but stays exactly where they are?

You always need to be closing the gap.

Stop making this a big scary decision and start taking lots of continuous small steps. Take something you love doing – or if you're not sure what that is, something you'd like to try. And move towards it now.

In your case, you don't have to choose between a well-paid job you don't like and the unknown. You have countless other options:

1. Start up a small business in your evenings
2. Ask your boss what you could do for them to get promoted
3. Teach yourself a new skill that interests you
4. Write a blog or a book

Some steps will lead to greater things. Others will be dead ends. But as long as you sit feeling paralysed, I can assure you nothing will change at all.

Do not, and I shall repeat for emphasis, do not defer this until a "better time". If you make a habit of that, you'll wake up one idle Monday and wonder how you let your whole life fly away.

For more posts like this, follow this board: Leading a better life

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How does one manage time more effectively?

Answer by Piyush Arya:

Mayonnaise jar and the 2 Beers
(originally posted here When things in your life seem almost too much to handle,…)
A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full.. The students responded with a unanimous 'yes.'

The professor then produced two Beers from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand.The students laughed..

'Now,' said the professor as the laughter subsided, 'I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things—your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions—and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car.. The sand is everything else—the small stuff.

'If you put the sand into the jar first,' he continued, 'there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life.

If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you.

Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness.

Spend time with your children. Spend time with your parents. Visit with grandparents. Take your spouse out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house and mow the lawn.

Take care of the golf balls first—the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the Beer represented. The professor smiled and said, 'I'm glad you asked.' The Beer just shows you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of Beers with a friend.

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How does one manage time more effectively?

Answer by Oliver Emberton:

The secret to time management is simple: Jedi time tricks.
 
Imagine you were a Jedi master called Bob (your parents, whilst skilled in the ways of the force weren’t the best at choosing names). The love of your life – Princess Lucia – is trapped in a burning building as you hurry to save her.
 

You might think of Lucia as the embodiment of your dreams, your aspirations – she is your most important thing.

Unfortunately, before you can reach her an army of stormtroopers open fire. The incoming stream of lasers demand your attention – if you fail to dodge them, you’re dead. You might think of them as an urgent distraction from saving your princess.

We all know how a hero resolves this dilemma. If he takes his eye off the ultimate goal – his princess – then all his other efforts are for nought. He can engage an army of stormtroopers, cutting them down with graceful ease, but their numbers are limitless, and whilst momentarily satisfying they only distract him. Delayed too long, his princess will die.
 
And so it is with your life. You have things that are most important and things that are most urgent in permanent competition:

The secret to mastering your time is to systematically focus on importance and suppress urgency. Humans are pre-wired to focus on things which demand an immediate response, like alerts on their phones – and to postpone things which are most important, like going to the gym. You need to reverse that, which goes against your brain and most of human society.
 
Look at what you spend your day doing. Most of it, I’ll warrant, is not anything you chose – it’s what is being asked of you. Here’s how we fix that, young padawan:
 

• Say no. Most of us follow an implicit social contract: when someone asks you to do something you almost always say yes. It may feel very noble, but don’t forget there’s a dying princess you need to save, and you just agreed to slow yourself down because you were asked nicely. You may need to sacrifice some social comfort to save a life (as a bonus, people tend to instinctively respect those who can say no).
• Unplug the TV. I haven’t had a TV signal for 7 years, which has given me about 12,376 hours more than the average American who indulges in 34 hours a week. I do watch some shows – usually one hour a day whilst eating dinner – but only ones I’ve chosen and bought. You can do a lot with 12,000 hours, and still keep up with Mad Men.
• Kill notifications. Modern technology has evolved to exploit our urgency addiction: email, Facebook, Twitter, Quora and more will fight to distract you constantly. Fortunately, this is easily fixed: turn off all your notifications. Choose to check these things when you have time to be distracted – say, during a lunch break – and work through them together, saving time.

• Schedule your priorities. Humans are such funny critters. If you have a friend to meet, you’ll arrange to see them at a set time. But if you have something that matters to you more than anything – say writing a book, or going to the gym – you won’t schedule it. You’ll just ‘get round to it’. Treat your highest priorities like flights you have to catch: give them a set time in advance and say no to anything that would stop you making your flight.
• First things first. What is the single most important (not urgent) thing you could possibly be doing? Do some of that today. Remember there’s a limitless number of distracting stormtroopers – don’t fool yourself by thinking “if I just do this thing first then I can”. Jedi don’t live by excuses.
• Less volume, more time. There’s always millions of things you could be doing. The trick is to pick no more than 1 – 3 a day, and relentlessly pursue those. Your brain won’t like this limit. Other people won’t like this limit. Do it anyway. Focusing your all on one task at a time is infinitely more efficient than multi-tasking and gives you time to excel at your work.
• Ignore. It’s rude, unprofessional and often utterly necessary. There are people you won’t find time to reply to. There are requests you will allow yourself to forget. You can be slow to do things like tidy up, pay bills or open mail. The world won't fall apart. The payoff isyou get done what matters.

 
One final lesson from the Jedi: they're heroes.
 
Heroes inspire us for many reasons: they make tough decisions, they keep going and they get done what matters. But there’s another reason we love our heroes. Inside us all, we know we have the power to become one ourselves.
 
 
For more like this follow my blog or stalk me on Twitter or Facebook.

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How do I get over my bad habit of procrastinating ?

Answer by Oliver Emberton:

I'll answer your question, but first I need to explain all of human civilisation in 2 minutes with the aid of a cartoon snake.

Humans like to think we're a clever lot. Yet those magnificent, mighty brains that allow us to split the atom and touch the moon are the same stupid brains that can't start an assignment until the day before it's due.

We evolved from primitive creatures, but we never quite shed ourselves of their legacy. You know the clever, rational part of your brain you think of as your human consciousness? Let's call him Albert. He lives in your brain alongside an impulsive baby reptile called Rex:

(Rex is your basal ganglia, but that's not very catchy so I'm sticking with Rex).

Rex evolved millions of years ago – unsurprisingly enough, in the brains of reptiles – and his instincts guide and motivate you to this day. Hunger. Fear. Love. Lust. Rex's thoughts are primitive and without language.

Here's the bit you're not going to like. Rex makes the final call on all your decisions. Every. Single. One.

We like to think of Albert as "our true self" – the conscious part of your brain. He's the talking, reasoning part. When we decide to go to the gym or write that term paper, Albert made that decision.

Rex does listen to Albert. Like a child, he will do a lot of what he's told, as long as he wants to. But if Rex prefers to crash on the sofa to watch Survivor and eat Cheetos, that's what you're going to do.

The incredible ascension of mankind that surrounds us is largely possible because we've developed systems to nurture our reptilian brains, to subdue, soothe and subvert them.

Much of this system we call "civilisation". Widely available food and shelter take care of a lot. So does a system of law, and justice. Mandatory education. Entertainment. Monogamy. All of it calms Rex down for long enough for Albert to do something useful – like discover penicillin, or invent Cheetos.

Now let's look at your procrastination.

You're making a decision with your conscious mind and wondering why you're not carrying it out. The truth is the real decision maker – Rex – is not nearly so mature.

Imagine you had to constantly convince a young child to do what you wanted.  For simple actions, asserting your authority might be enough. "It's time for dinner". But if that child doesn't want to do something, it won't listen. You need to cajole it:

• Forget logic. Once you've decided to do something, logic and rationale won't help you. Your inner reptile can be placated, scared and excited. But it doesn't speak with language and cannot be reasoned with.
• Comfort matters. If you're hungry, tired or depressed your baby reptile will rebel. Fail to take care of yourself, and he'll wail and scream and refuse to do a damn thing you say. That's what he's for. Eat, sleep and make time for fun.
• Nurture discipline. Build a routine of positive and negative reinforcement. If you want a child to eat their vegetables, don't give them dessert first. Reward yourself for successes, and set up assured punishments for your failure. Classic examples include committing to a public goal, or working in a team – social pressure can influence Rex. 
• Incite emotion. Your reptile brain responds to emotion. That is its language. So get yourself pumped, or terrified. Motivational talks, movies and articles can work, for a while. I use dramatic music (one of my favourite playlists is called Music to conquer worlds by). Picture the bliss associated with getting something done, or the horrors of failing. Make your imagination vivid enough that it shakes you. We use similar tricks on children for a reason: "brush your teeth or they'll fall out".
• Force a start. The most important thing you can do is start. Much of Rex's instincts are to avoid change, and once you begin something those instincts start to tip into your favour. With enough time, you can even convince Rex to love doing the things he hated. There's a reason we force kids to go to school or to try piano lessons.
• Bias your environment. Rex is short sighted and not terribly bright. If he sees a Facebook icon, he'll want it. It's like showing a child the start of a cool TV program immediately before bedtime. Design your environment to be free from such distractions: sign out of instant messenger, turn off notifications, turn off email. Have separate places for work and fun, and ideally separate computers (or at least accounts).

Once you know what to look for, you'll start to recognise the patterns and control them.

There's an impulsive baby reptile in your brain, and unfortunately he has the steering wheel. If you can be a good parent to him he'll mostly do what you say, and serve you well. Just remember who's in charge.

For more like this follow my blog or stalk me on Twitter or Facebook.

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What are some tools that every web developer should have in their toolbox?

Answer by James Tharpe:

In no particular order:

• A link checker – I like Xenu's Link Sleuth.
• Good Sass and CoffeeScript plugins for your IDE/build-scripts.
• A good IDE, such as Dreamweaver, WebMatrix, Eclipse, or Visual Studio.
• A good text editor, such as Notepad++.
• A tool for evaluating and improving download times, such as YSlow.
• An HTTP debugger, I'm fond of Fiddler.
• The latest versions of IE, Chrome, FireFox, and Safari.
• An automated testing tool, like Selenium.
• Version Control – Subversion and Git are pretty standard.
• Various devices (phones, tablets) for testing.
• Common web dev libraries such as jQuery, Backbone.js, Bootstrap, etc..
• Premium training and reference materials. My team subscribes to Lynda.com for example, and we're also thinking about Pluralsight.

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