Investing
The glossary and the how-to guides are about trading — decisions measured in bars. These pages are about holding, where the decision is measured in years and almost everything that matters is a cost or a tax rather than a chart.
Same standard as the rest of the site. Every page carries a figure from our study of 24,971 videos, a worked example, and a section on what it looks like when the idea fails. Nothing here is advice about what to buy.
How to Start Investing
To start investing, choose the account first, then the amount, then the schedule, and only then what to buy. The order matters because the first three decisions are ones you control completely and the fourth is the one everybody argues about.
What it costs to hold An annual fund fee, and whatever the account charges
What Is an ETF?
An ETF, or exchange-traded fund, holds a basket of assets and trades on an exchange like a single share. The wrapper changes when and how you buy it rather than what you own, so the holdings and the fee still decide the outcome, and trading all day mostly creates chances to get it wrong.
What it costs to hold An annual fee, plus a spread on every purchase
What Is an Index Fund?
An index fund holds every company in a chosen index in proportion to their size, so its return tracks the index minus its fee. Because nobody is picking the holdings, the fee is small, and over decades that fee difference decides more of the outcome than anything else you can choose.
What it costs to hold An annual fee, typically 0.03%–0.20%
3 pages written so far. Educational, not financial advice.