Investing All-in-One For Dummies

Contents at a Glance
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Introduction
About This Book
Foolish Assumptions
Icons Used in This Book
Beyond the Book
Where to Go from Here
Book 1: Getting Started with Investing
Chapter 1: Exploring Your Investment Choices
Getting Started with Investing
Building Wealth with Ownership Investments
Generating Income from Lending Investments
Considering Cash Equivalents
Choosing Where to Invest and Get Advice
Chapter 2: Weighing Risks and Returns
Evaluating Risks
Analyzing Returns
Compounding Your Returns
Chapter 3: The Workings of Stock and Bond Markets
How Companies Raise Money through the Financial Markets
Understanding Financial Markets and Economics
Book 2: Investing in Your 20s and 30s
Chapter 1: Using Investments to Accomplish Your Goals
Setting and Prioritizing Your Shorter-Term Goals
Investing in Retirement Accounts
Chapter 2: Minimizing Your Taxes When Investing
Understanding Investment Taxes
Reducing Your Taxes When Selling Investments
Chapter 3: Laying Out Your Financial Plans
First Priorities: Paying Off High-Cost Debt and Building a Safety Reserve
What about Paying Down Other Debts?
Sorting Out Your Financial Plans
Knowing the Impact of Investing for College Costs
Securing Proper Insurance
Chapter 4: Starting Out with Bank and Credit Union Accounts
Understanding FDIC Bank Insurance
Investing in Banking Account and Savings Vehicles
Negotiating with Bankers
Feeling Secure with Your Bank
Exploring Alternatives to Bank Accounts
Book 3: Checking Out Stock Investing
Chapter 1: Gathering Information on Stocks
Looking to Stock Exchanges for Answers
Grasping the Basics of Accounting and Economics
Staying on Top of Financial News
Reading (And Understanding) Stock Tables
Using News about Dividends
Evaluating Investment Tips
Chapter 2: Investing for Long-Term Growth
Becoming a Value-Oriented Growth Investor
Choosing Growth Stocks with a Few Handy Tips
Chapter 3: Investing for Income and Cash Flow
Understanding the Basics of Income Stocks
Analyzing Income Stocks
Exploring Some Typical Income Stocks
Chapter 4: Using Basic Accounting to Choose Winning Stocks
Recognizing Value When You See It
Accounting for Value
Book 4: Looking at Bond Investing
Chapter 1: Bond Fundamentals
Understanding What Makes a Bond a Bond
Why Hold Bonds?
Introducing the Major Players in the Bond Market
Buying Solo or Buying in Bulk
The Triumphs and Failures of Fixed-Income Investing
Realizing How Crucial Bonds Are Today
Viewing Recent Developments, Largely for the Better
Chapter 2: All about the Interest
The Tricky Business That Is Calculating Rates of Return
Measuring the Desirability of a Bond
Understanding Yield
Recognizing Total Return (This Is What Matters Most!)
Measuring the Volatility of Your Bond Holdings
Returning to the Bonds of Babylonia
Chapter 3: Checking Out Types of Bonds
Exploring the Many Ways of Investing with Uncle Sam
Industrial Returns: Corporate Bonds
Lots of Protection, a Touch of Confusion: Agency Bonds
Banking Your Money on Other People’s Mortgages
(Almost) Tax-Free Havens: Municipal Bonds
Chapter 4: Investing (Carefully!) in Individual Bonds
Navigating Today’s Individual Bond Market
Dealing with Brokers and Other Financial Professionals
Doing It Yourself Online
Perfecting the Art of Laddering
Chapter 5: Picking a Bond Fund That Will Serve You for Life
Defining the Basic Kinds of Funds
What Matters Most in Choosing a Bond Fund of Any Sort
Book 5: Moving on to Mutual Funds and Exchange-Traded Funds
Chapter 1: Considering Mutual Funds’ Pros and Cons
Introducing Mutual Funds and Exchange-Traded Funds
Getting a Grip on Funds
Opting for Mutual Funds
Addressing the Drawbacks
Chapter 2: Finding the Best Mutual Funds
Evaluating Gain-Eating Costs
Weighing Performance and Risk
Recognizing Manager Expertise
Chapter 3: Buying Mutual Funds from the Best Firms
Finding the Best Buys
Discount Brokers: Mutual Fund Supermarkets
Places to Pass By
Chapter 4: What the Heck Is an ETF, Anyway?
The Nature of the Beast
Choosing between the Classic and the New Indexes
Preferring ETFs over Individual Stocks
Distinguishing ETFs from Mutual Funds
Why the Big Boys Prefer ETFs
Why Individual Investors Are Learning to Love ETFs
Getting the Professional Edge
Passive versus Active Investing: Your Choice
Do ETFs Belong in Your Life?
Chapter 5: Risk Control, Diversification, and Other Things to Know about ETFs
Risk Is Not Just a Board Game
Smart Risk, Foolish Risk
How Risk Is Measured
Mixing and Matching Your Stock ETFs
Book 6: Investing Online
Chapter 1: Getting Ready for Online Investing
Why Investing Online Is Worth Your While
Getting Started
Gut-Check Time: How Much Risk Can You Take?
Passive or Active? Deciding What Kind of Investor You Plan to Be
Chapter 2: Getting Your Device Ready for Online Investing
Turning Your Device into a Trading Station
Tracking the Market’s Every Move
Monitoring Market-Moving News
Checking In on Wall Street Chatter
Keeping Tabs on the Regulators
Searching the Internet High and Low
Keeping the Bad Guys Out: Securing Your PC
Mastering the Basics with Online Tutorials and Simulations
Chapter 3: Connecting with an Online Broker
Finding the Best Broker for You
Separating the Types of Brokerages
Avoiding Hidden Fees
Finding Out What Reviewers Think
Is Your Money Safe? Checking Out Your Broker
Cutting the Cord: Mobile Trading
Pay Attention to Where Your Cash Is Parked: Money Market Funds
Buying Stocks and Mutual Funds without a Broker
Opening and Setting Up Your Account
Chapter 4: Entering and Executing Trades
Understanding How Stock Trades and Shares Are Handled
Getting It Done: Executing Your Trades
Book 7: Introducing Fundamental Analysis
Chapter 1: Understanding Fundamental Analysis
Why Bother with Fundamental Analysis?
Knowing the Tools of the Fundamental Analysis Trade
Making Fundamental Analysis Work For You
Chapter 2: Getting Up to Speed with Fundamental Analysis
What Is Fundamental Analysis?
Comparing Fundamental Analysis with Other Ways of Picking Investments
Putting Fundamental Analysis to Work For You
Making Money with Fundamental Analysis
The Fundamental Analysis Toolbox
Chapter 3: Gaining an Edge with Fundamental Analysis
Better Investing with Fundamentals
Relying on the Basic Info the Pros Use
Figuring Out When to Buy or Sell a Stock
Chapter 4: Getting Your Hands on Fundamental Data
Getting in Sync with the Fundamental Calendar
Getting Up to Speed with Basic Accounting and Math
Knowing How to Get the Fundamental Data You Need
Book 8: Investing in Real Estate
Chapter 1: Evaluating Real Estate as an Investment
Understanding Real Estate’s Income- and Wealth-Producing Potential
Recognizing the Caveats of Real Estate Investing
Comparing Real Estate to Other Investments
Determining Whether You Should Invest in Real Estate
Fitting Real Estate into Your Plans
Chapter 2: Covering Common Real Estate Investments
Identifying the Various Ways to Invest in Residential Income Property
Surveying the Types of Residential Properties You Can Buy
Considering Commercial Real Estate
Buying Undeveloped or Raw Land
Chapter 3: Identifying Sources of Capital
Calculating the Costs of Admission
Rounding Up the Required Cash by Saving
Overcoming Down Payment Limitations
Chapter 4: Location, Location, Value
Deciding Where to Invest
Finding Properties to Add Value
Evaluating a Region: The Big Picture
Investigating Your Local Market
Evaluating Neighborhoods
Mastering Seller’s and Buyer’s Markets
Book 9: Investing in Trends
Chapter 1: Taking the Nickel Tour of Cannabis Investing
Weighing the Pros and Cons of Investing in Cannabis
Investing in Businesses That Touch the Plant or Those That Don’t
Exploring Your Investment Options
Finding Investment Opportunities
Researching Investment Opportunities
Planning Your Investment Strategy
Investing in a Cannabis Business
Chapter 2: The Political, Cultural, and Regulatory Landscape of Cannabis Investing
Recognizing the Impact of Laws on the Industry
Riding the Waves of Politics and Culture
Accounting for the High Costs of Doing Business
Chapter 3: What Is a Cryptocurrency?
Beginning with the Basics of Cryptocurrencies
Gearing Up to Make Transactions
Making a Plan Before You Jump In
Chapter 4: How Cryptocurrencies Work
Explaining Basic Terms in the Cryptocurrency Process
Cruising through Other Important Crypto Concepts
Stick a Fork in It: Digging into Cryptocurrency Forks
Chapter 5: Entering the World of ESG Investing
Surveying the Current ESG Landscape
Exploring What ESG Is (and Isn’t)
Understanding ESG’s Impact on the Environment, Society, and Governance
Using International Standards to Determine ESG Objectives
Index
About the Authors
Connect with Dummies
End User License Agreement
List of Tables
Book 1 Chapter 2
TABLE 2-1 Largest U.S. Stock Market Declines*
TABLE 2-2 Inflation’s Corrosive Effect on Your Money’s Purchasing Power
TABLE 2-3 How Compounding Grows Your Investment Dollars
Book 2 Chapter 2
TABLE 2-1 2021 Federal Income Tax Rates for Single and Married Households Filing...
Book 3 Chapter 1
TABLE 1-1 A Sample Stock Table
TABLE 1-2 The Life of the Quarterly Dividend
Book 3 Chapter 2
TABLE 2-1 Grobaby, Inc., Income Statement
TABLE 2-2 Grobaby, Inc., Balance Sheet
Book 3 Chapter 3
TABLE 3-1 Comparing Yields
Book 3 Chapter 4
TABLE 4-1 XYZ Balance Sheet — December 31, 2021
TABLE 4-2 XYZ Income Statement — December 31, 2021
Book 5 Chapter 2
TABLE 2-1 Comparing the Van Wagoner Emerging Growth Fund’s Performance
Book 5 Chapter 4
TABLE 4-1 ETFs versus Mutual Funds versus Individual Stocks
TABLE 4-2 Rock-Bottom-Priced ETFs
TABLE 4-3 Holdings of the iShares Dow Jones U.S. Energy Sector ETF as of Mid-Aug...
Book 5 Chapter 5
TABLE 5-1 Standard Deviation of Two Hypothetical ETFs
TABLE 5-2 Recent Performance of Various Investment Styles
TABLE 5-3 Recent Performance of Various Market Sectors
Book 6 Chapter 2
TABLE 2-1 Key Market Indexes
TABLE 2-2 SEC Forms You Can Use
Book 6 Chapter 3
TABLE 3-1 Deep Discounters
TABLE 3-2 Discounters
Book 7 Chapter 1
TABLE 1-1 Watch Out! A Falling Knife!
Book 7 Chapter 3
TABLE 3-1 Fundamentals Matter: Value Beats Growth
TABLE 3-2 Measuring the Size of Companies
TABLE 3-3 Big Buffett Bets
Book 7 Chapter 4
TABLE 4-1 Filing Deadlines for Key Documents
Book 8 Chapter 1
TABLE 1-1 How a Rental Property’s Income and Wealth Build Over Time
List of Illustrations
Book 1 Chapter 2
FIGURE 2-1: What are the odds of making or losing money in the U.S. markets? In...
FIGURE 2-2: The longer you hold stocks, the more likely you are to make money.
FIGURE 2-3: Even the bull market of the 1990s wasn’t kind to every company.
FIGURE 2-4: A historical view of bond performance: Inflation has eroded bond re...
FIGURE 2-5: History shows that stocks have been a consistent long-term winner.
FIGURE 2-6: Plenty of investing opportunities exist outside the United States.
Book 2 Chapter 4
FIGURE 4-1: A sample Truth in Savings Disclosure statement from an online bank....
Book 4 Chapter 4
FIGURE 4-1: A typical bond ladder.
Book 5 Chapter 2
FIGURE 2-1: How to spot load funds.
Book 5 Chapter 4
FIGURE 4-1: The secret to ETFs’ tax friendliness lies in their very structure.
Book 5 Chapter 5
FIGURE 5-1: The risk levels of a sampling of ETFs.
FIGURE 5-2: The style box or grid.
Book 6 Chapter 2
FIGURE 2-1: Setting financial websites as favorites is a matter of just clickin...
FIGURE 2-2: The Fed’s website makes it easy to track important interest rates.
Book 7 Chapter 2
FIGURE 2-1: A square with three slices is the best way to understand the relati...
Book 8 Chapter 4
FIGURE 4-1: Property knowledge sheet.
Book 9 Chapter 2
FIGURE 2-1: Check out an online map to determine overall legal status.
Book 9 Chapter 4
FIGURE 4-1: An example of a hard fork.
FIGURE 4-2: An example of a soft fork.
Book 9 Chapter 5
FIGURE 5-1: ESG Cube with intersections between factors.
FIGURE 5-2: Industry sectors per the SASB’s Materiality Map.
FIGURE 5-3: Popular ESG investment strategies.
FIGURE 5-4: Material indicators per the SASB’s Materiality Map.