Basics of Financial Literacy
Published:
Part of a series on: Second Order Finance
Disclaimer: All articles are presented for educational purposes only and do not constitute financial advice. Opinions are my own.
My Second Order Finance series nominally discusses small tweaks and optimizations. Before embarking on that journey, be sure to have the basics covered:
- Live beneath your means.
- Have a method of meeting short-term liquidity needs.
- Don’t carry high-interest debt.
- Use tax-advantaged account structures as much as reasonably possible.
- Invest using internationally diversified index funds.
The specifics — such as “what constitutes high-interest debt?”, “which index funds should I use?”, and other similar questions — are implementation details that I leave to personal preference.
Resources #
A wealth of resources exist to get you started down the right path. I don’t have perfect agreement with any of the below sources, but all of them point in the right direction.
- Book: The Simple Path to Wealth ~ J. L. Collins
- Pamphlet: If You Can ~ William J. Bernstein
- Podcast/YouTube: The Money Guy Show ~ Brian Preston & Bo Hanson
- Subreddit: r/personalfinance
- Forum: bogleheads.org