We are strong believers in investing here at E.M. We think it is an absolutely MUST-DO for differentiating yourself (in a good way) from the average American/human being, whose life is riddled with debt. That’s why occasionally, we’ll be giving you primers on investing concepts and why you should care.

We will make sense of the basic concepts and contemporary news and try to keep it high level so you don’t have to be some sort of “financial lord voldermort” to understand it while still being able to make use of it in your everday life. Honestly, we go nuts for this shit, and here’s why:

1. Investing will make you money – This may be the single most no-brainer thing I’ve ever said…but it is more than true. Investing, in any form should be a part of your financial life. If you are in debt, you should GET OUT of debt quickly, so you can start investing. A vast majority of America will spend the vast majority of their adult lives working for their precious dollars. Investing is the way that you can get that money to work for you. Investing is what will pay the down payments for your house(s). Investments are what you’ll cash in on to pay for your kid’s college education. Investments are what you’ll be living off of when you decide to finally stop working. Investing will bring that day closer. :)  Investing is what will get you that money to help you accomplish whatever selfish, selfless, philanthropically, or bizarre dreams you wish to fulfill in your lifetime.  Investing is important.

2. Investing will teach you about the world – This is actually a great side effect of investing. The more active you are in learning about investing and applying what you learn to your actual portfolio (collection of investments) the more money you’ll make and the more you’ll understand about the world in general. You’ll better understand the relationships between industries in the world, happenings in our economy, the political meaning of it all, the implications of the news on you and those who matter to you. You’ll better understand the past, present, and future… of everything. But honestly, and most importantly you’ll better understand how to behave/act/adapt in your non-financial life by understanding all of the above for the betterment of yourself and those you love. Broaden your horizons, become more aware!

So what the hell is investing? The purpose of this post is to whet your appetite and preface future posts on different methods of investing. However in the simplest terms I could think of:

Investing = Buying/acquiring stakes in assets (aka things) that will go up in value over time with the intent of someday taking action to turn those assets back into cash that you can use to do whatever heck you want with… including reinvesting it.

Some of the most common methods of investing are stocks, mutual funds, real estate, commodities, futures, bonds, and currency. There are much more and we hope to explore many of them here on this blog!  In the meantime, pick up a basic investing book (here, here, or here - I’ve read all of these ones and they are great beginner novels), or even just go to investopedia.com and start learning some of the basic language. I IMPLORE YOU!