Money, Trading, Investments etc

BigDebtBoy

Hi guys

Looking for a bit of help and advice regarding ..well pretty much everything really:o
After reading a book called rich dad poor dad (re-inforced a lot of stuff I always thought) I want to learn more about making cash and financial intelligence I guess, I have none really, standard education which never really interested me to be honest apart from a few subjects, set up a small business when I was 21/22 which was doing ok until around 4 years ago (ended up bankrupt)
can I anyone reccomend me any ways to learn more about
Financial Intelligence
stocks/shares/investing etc
Any books to read, websites to check out (a website I could perhaps use to start trading stock/shares either with very small amounts or paper trading)
I am out of work at the moment so have very little to invest etc but what better time to learn and keep myself busy.
Any advice much appreciated

atush

I dont' mean to blunt or mean, but your first port of call should be to debt/money saving/getting into work forums. Eventually, not long from now we hope to see you here and to give you great advice. Unless of course you have recently been made redundant and have a lump sum of redundancy to invest. So let us know how much you have to save and what your situation is.

But if you are out of work, I dont' see as how you have any money to invest. If you have more coming in, in benefits than you need to spend, you need to save any extra into an instant access savings acct at the best rate of interest you can find. But you do need to first pay off any debt you may have aleady accumulated. Once you have 3-6 months of expediture saved then you can look to investments. If in work, after cash buffer Pensions first, then other investments into tax efficent ISAs etc.

Go to the Debt free board if you are in debt, (or even if you are just out of work and dont want to fall into debt) and post a SOA (statment of affaris incl all incomings and outgoings). Then people there will help you know where to save in your budget and shave things down so you know where you are and how much you can save. Look for work everyday and if having a hard time finding something go to your local jobcenter and see if there are things you can sign up for such as CV preparation and retraining.

But by all means learn about finance while you are doing all the above. Your first port of call should be general money management such as budgeting incl a spending diary to know where all your money is going and how much you are wasting. It will be an enlightening experience to ralise how much money we all waste. Then learn how to stick to yoru budget and run a basic acct w.o falling behind. Learn aobut pensions and savings accounts and not paying tax (from simple things like filling out an R85 form if you are not a taxpayer so as to get all the interest due to you in a savings acct to finding and keeping the best interet on savings (many acct have a one year bonus that will drop off so youhave to keep up to date) to learning if you have a job how to and why to join the company pension scheme. One of the best ways to learn is by reaing a quality newpaper's money pages- often in weekend suppliments but sometimes during the week. They often have basic guides to things like Isas etc.

One of the best ways to learn how to invest is to keep up with world news and events, not just what is going on in the UK or your local area.

Basically, you may already know some of this stuff, but from your OP asking about saving when you are out of work it is kind of hard to tell. So give us more ideas, and we will help you get where you want to be.

Totton

Consider the following -

Book - Tim Hale 'Smarter Investing' http://www.amazon.co.uk/Smarter-Investing-Simpler-Decisions-Results/dp/0273722077/ref=dp_ob_title_bk/278-8492995-2975306

Websites
You can set up a mock portfolio at most financial sites plus others such as LSE and Financial Times. I'd suggest two good ones may be Trustnet and Morningstar UK.

Hope that helps,
Mickey