From: "Elle" 
Newsgroups: misc.invest.financial-plan
Subject: Re: A little advice...
Date: Thu, 15 Mar 2007 13:21:22 -0500
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	=5hpv

Will, can you state about how much money you have to invest 
each year, apart from your 401(k) and IRA(s). Knowing this 
figure might assist others in guiding you to an appropriate, 
say, brokerage. Also, please give the details of your debt: 
Its interest rate, years remaining, etc. Putting any spare 
money  you have into paying down this debt might very well 
be your best investment.

I happen to like joetaxpayer's site's list of investing 
books.

I also think just working with the free online stock asset 
allocation tools listed at
http://home.earthlink.net/~elle_navorski/id8.html is a great 
introduction to the notion of diversifying so as to reduce 
risk while maximizing returns.

I echo Joe's and others' comments on the character of the 
author and message of "Rich Dad, Poor Dad." Throw the book 
out, or google on criticism of the author to learn about 
charlatans in the financial world.

On how people got started in investing: This came up here 
not long ago, and it seems most follow the example of 
relatives' or just take the plunge, having a basic 
understanding that stock returns beat inflation and then 
some. For my part, when I graduated from college in 1983 and 
started working for a Fortune 500 company at a scandalous 
rate of pay and with a nice employee retirement plan, my 
father in a rare instance bellowed at me: 'Don't put your 
money in savings bonds. Put it all in a blue chip mutual 
fund.' I had the advantage though of starting to invest at 
the beginning of an amazing bull market. Of course, I lived 
through the correction of October 1987, too, and this has 
tempered my experience, if only to be aware that "sneezes" 
happen and they won't ruin a person invested for the long 
run. At least, historically speaking.

For investing in individual stocks, I advocate Ben Graham's 
_Intelligent Investor_ book. Though for you, I really think 
you should stick with mostly index funds for awhile with 
maybe a few small stock positions.