The simple path to wealth! What a week that was. We had the man himself, the godfather of financial independence, JL Collins, talking us through index investing and his investment strategy. Before we dive into this we had a question from one of the audience...

My one niggling question at the moment is this: Are you getting commission money from Vanguard to run this course and promote them?

The answer is No. If we were we would be getting a lot richer! We recommend Vanguard for 3 reasons:

1. They are owned by the people who own the funds (us).  So instead of having to share profits with shareholders they are incentivised to reduce fund costs instead.
2. They are super low cost and fees make a HUGE difference in your long-term wealth accumulation 
3. We agree with the founder's mission to make the stock market and all its wealth building abilities available and affordable to all.  It really ties in with that we are doing.

Katie and I have all our money in various accounts with Vanguard Index funds.  This is the company we use and trust and that is why we are telling you about them. 

The investing course
This is going to be a shorter article which points you to more resources.  This was Part 2 of the 3 weeks we are spending on investing.  

• Part 1. Week 6. The Theory. Introduction to assets, diversification and what are stocks and shares?
• Part 2. Week 7. JL Collins. The Simple Path to Wealth and index investing in detail
• Part 3. Week 8. Putting it into practice. What type of account should you open? How do you actually implement this stuff?

Coming up in week 8
You might be thinking...
"This is all very well Donegans but I'm now sat at my laptop ready to invest, how do I actually do it? What are the different accounts I can get? What are the different fees you have to pay and how can you minimise these?" 

Well in week 6 we covered some of the theory of investing. This week we had JL Collins live explaining more about index investing and his Simple Path to Wealth. Next week (week 8) we're going to talk about how to implement all of this! Stick with it, we're building week on week. We have one more week of content to cover this investing stuff. Hang tight. You don't need to implement anything yet! We have more to tell you.

Disclaimer
We are NOT financial advisers. The content of this course, the articles on this blog and these articles are NOT financial advise. This is our opinion and we are just sharing what we are doing. DO YOUR OWN HOMEWORK

Resources to learn more about index investing
This is not an exhaustive list of course. Also you don't have to read/watch/listen to all of these. Just pick ONE and start!

• Watch JL Collins' Google talk about investing. It's a one hour talk. Instead of watching an episode or two of your favourite Netflix show watch this instead. You will be much wealthier in the long run!
• JL Collins' book The Simple Path to Wealth. All of JL's investment advice is free on his blog. For a more condensed and easier to read version you can buy the book (link to UK version or US version). YOU DO NOT NEED TO BUY THE BOOK. There's nothing additional in the book that isn't on JL's blog. The book is just a more condensed and easier to read version. The links to the books are affiliate links, if you buy the book using these links we will get a small commission which helps to cover the cost of the Zoom account and web hosting or you can just go direct to Amazon and search for them. You could also get it from the library of course.
• When we ran the course last time we didn't give enough information on how to choose an index fund and how to actually get going. During lockdown we wrote a whole series of articles covering this and they go into way more detail than we have time to cover on our calls. Here are some articles about index investing.
  
• JL recorded a guided meditation for when the stock market is dropping. Listen to his dulcet tones to help you stay calm and stay the course

Week 7 homework
To get the most out of this course you must do the homework (plus homework is fun! Or that's what Katie tells me....)

So here is the homework for week 7... 

1. Have you done the homework from week 6? If not go back and do it now!

2. Pick ONE of the resources from the list above about index investing and have a read/watch/listen.

Ask for help
Remember to reach out in the Facebook group with any questions you have or if you get stuck. Don't let confusion be an excuse for not progressing with this stuff. We are here to support you!

Alan and Katie