How to Start Investing in a Brokerage

DISCLOSURE: I AM NOT A FINANCIAL ADVISOR

Why am I Writing this?

There are million of guides on how to invest online. Since my first internship 4 years ago, I wanted a simple guide to consolidate everything I've learned over the years in one place (mostly for myself but also for friends whenever they ask me for advice and I can look back). I love sharing information with the world and investing has definitely given me that cushion of mind over the last few years. In terms of my gains (which I'm obviously not going to post the exact numbers here), it's more than doubled my overall net worth by literally just moving money from one account to another and investing in securities.

And also...

Background Info

With anything finance-wise, there's also a bunch of boring terms that you need to learn first. I remember when I first started, I was like wtf are all these random symbols and numbers. Over time it started to make sense for me but it was definitely overwhelming at first.

How do you actually invest in a stock? Through a brokerage!

A brokerage is the middleman that allows you to buy assets and securities like stocks and bonds. Unlike a traditional bank, they don't typically offer

References

https://www.reddit.com/r/personalfinance/wiki/index/

https://www.fidelity.com/learning-center/events/virtual-classrooms

https://www.bogleheads.org/