Learning and understand savings and investments??

bored_of_debt

Can anybody advise me as to the best way or ways to familiarise myself with savings and investments?

I picked up a couple of 'for dumies' books which actually seem quite good but was wondering what other suggestions people may have? I don't understand how funds, stocks, processes work etc...

I've signed up to MSN virtual trader and that has helped a little, but I don't understand most of the information available there.

I read these forums fairly often and have a very limited understanding but there's lots I don't have a clue about... Any pointers??

I'm still in quite a bit of debt as I write but I'd like to have a better understanding for when my money is mine to do as I please

Crabman

The Telegraph offer free reader guides on savings and investments - I've found these quite useful when trying to understand different types of investments etc.:

http://offers.telegraph.co.uk/content-10032/

Footsie_2

You've made a good start with the virtual trading platform, it gives you an idea of the environment without any risk. Other than that I think this forum is a good place to learn more, feel free to ask any questions you like - I'm sure someone will know the answer

luckylizard

i can recommend the Financial Times Guide to Investing by Glen Arnold. it explains pretty well everything very clearly in manageable chunks. costs about 15 quid.

bored_of_debt

OK thanks very much, I'll see how I get on...

munk

Have a read through the articles on http://morningstar.co.uk and http://trustnet.co.uk/ - also their help pages are very good at explaining technical jargon, especially trustnet's - they give some good examples of how things like volatility, alpha, beta and r-squared ratios all relate to fund performance.

There's another very good in depth investment resource online here:

http://www.incademy.com/pages/home.htm

Goes into great detail about investment theory.

http://bestinvest.co.uk/ also have a good tutorial / classroom section.