How To Learn About Investing the Way That’s Right For You
There are four types of learners. Visual, auditory, kinesthetic and reading/writing. I’ll expand on what each of those mean in a minute, but first I want to talk about how we learn, and how that impacts your investing ability.
Investing, much like medicine or any other constantly developing field, demands a lifetime of learning. No matter how much of a stock expert you fancy yourself, you still need to put in the time to learn more. Do you think the Oracle of Omaha stopped learning new techniques when he hit his first billion? Absolutely not.
But learning about complex topics demands learning the right way. Before you continue researching, you need to ask if you’re getting everything out of it you can.
Here’s an example: a friend kept recommending me a podcast which broke down the hottest stock topics each week. I figured it was the perfect way to sneak some learning in while I was on my commute. And the podcast itself was great: well-produced, funny, well-researched. But I found I wasn’t retaining anything.
Why? Because I’m not an auditory learner. Plain and simple, I have to see something for it to register.
Let’s run through the types of learning and you can see which you identify most with:
Visual: This is exactly what it sounds like. You learn best by seeing things—charts, graphs, and videos are your friend.
Auditory: Learning by listening, whether it be a lecture, a podcast or a YouTube presentation, you retain knowledge best when it’s said aloud.
Kinesthetic: Those who do are those who learn. For this, I recommend finding active tutorials like
Reading/writing: Do you spend hours consuming various Wikipedia articles? Do you make bookworms look like chumps?
So, which are you? For me, I’m a reading/writing learner. Which is why I love using
Once you know who you are as a learner, the trick is to find the right resources.
To go back to
But beyond being affordable,
And for those that don’t find exactly what they need within