It's a Q&A edition of Optimal Finance Daily, episode 1461, and I'm your host and personal finance

enthusiast, Diana Mariam. We're going to change it up today and address some audience questions

on the show. But quick disclaimer, just like all the content shared here, this is for informational

and entertainment purposes only, or infotainment, if you will. I'm not a certified financial planner

and encourage you to take my opinions with a grain of salt. That being said, if you want to

send a question in to be answered here on the show, just send a message to finance at oldpodcast.com.

But for now, let's get to today's questions and start optimizing your life.

Our first question comes from Bianca, who wrote, I am 22 and have some extra money I'd like to

start investing. I always hear this is the way to become wealthy and stable into retirement.

I just downloaded e-trade and made a brokerage account. I've also been listening to Optimal

Finance Daily to educate myself on how the stock market works. I feel like I've got the gist

of it, but I still feel stuck on where to start when it comes to actually buying the stocks and

choosing the right ones. Especially in the odd COVID market we're in, where does one put their

money in today's economy? Thanks so much for asking this question Bianca and kudos to you for

thinking about this stuff at 22 years old. So many of us myself included wish we would have been

thinking about investing at your age. When it comes to investing, one of the most important

factors is time in the market. So investing early and often is a winning strategy.

The first thing I would recommend is to read The Simple Path to Wealth by Jail Collins.

This is the book that got me comfortable with investing and gives some very specific direction

that I can't cover in a 10 minute podcast. I'm a big advocate for passive investing in low

fee total market index funds versus choosing individual stocks, especially when you're first

starting out. Research shows that over time active investors don't perform any better than passive

...