I Will Teach You to Be Rich, Second Edition: No Guilt. No Excuses. No BS. Just a 6-Week Program That Works

These simple funds buy stocks and match the market (more precisely, to match an “index” of the market, such as the S&P 500), versus the traditional mutual fund, which employs an expensive staff of “experts” who try to predict which stocks will perform well, trade frequently, incur taxes in the process, and charge you fees.

Most index funds stay close to the market (or to the segment of the market they represent). Just as the stock market may fall 10 percent one year and gain 18 percent the next year, index funds will rise and fall with the indexes they track. The big difference is in fees: Index funds have lower fees than mutual funds, because there’s no expensive st

Target date funds are actually “funds of funds,” or collections made up of other funds, which offer automatic diversification.

But if you’ve invested money for a longer-term goal that you’ve achieved, sell and don’t think twice. That’s a great investing success, and you should use the money for whatever your original goal was.

Let’s say it again: The key to using credit cards effectively is to pay off your credit card in full every month.

For example, when I was in high school, I emailed fifty websites from different industries that looked interesting but had poor marketing and copywriting. I offered to help them rewrite their websites.

Most of us dramatically overestimate how much value we get from subscriptions.

Cool thing to note: Your employer match isn’t counted toward your contribution limit, so if you contribute $5,000 and your employer matches $5,000, you can still contribute another $14,000 for a total of $24,000 annually in your 401(k).

You will quickly determine whether this person is worth having a rational discussion with (e.g., if they say, “We should privatize roads” or “All taxation is theft,” just stand up and silently walk away).