Common Sense Investing (Free)
Learn simple, time-proven investing wisdom. Successful investing is not complicated. Learn how-to-achieve superior returns with little effort.
Watch Promo
Ten simple rules will help you finance your dreams. These principles are also endearingly called the Boglehead Investment Philosophy by the tens of thousands of us that admire John C. Bogle, lifelong champion of ordinary investors.
These few investment principles are easy to understand. They are proven both by history and by Nobel prize-winning financial economics research. Learn to achieve superior results with only a small amount of effort.
This FREE introductory course is a dozen 5-minute video lectures with printable handouts. It will give you a good overview and get you started. Your confidence will grow solid as you become familiar with the concepts discussed here, and eventually you will regard this as Common Sense Investing.
Many of you are curious and questions are inevitable. Additional courses are here that go a little deeper and provide more structured learning with an instructor monitoring your progress and answering questions, along with a like-minded supportive community that is on the same path. Your financial education needs to be a lifetime commitment, because achieving your dreams is so important.
My mission is to help you learn, understand, and apply the essential investing concepts that 99% of us should use—but are rarely taught in our high-schools, colleges, or around our kitchen tables. FinancingLife.org is a not-for-profit financial literacy project and the small course fees help pay our direct costs.
CREDIT: Featured background photo of hiker in mountains by Nourdine Diouane on Unsplash.
Your Instructor
Rick Van Ness is a successful private investor and retired executive who provides investor education through online videos, short books, and workshops. Rick has an engineering degree from Cornell University and an MBA in Finance from New York University. His background in engineering and business provides him with an excellent basis for understanding and teaching investments and financial planning.
Rick provides unbiased education. He helps students understand the teachings of the most widely respected economists and financial planners. Students learn that smart investing is simple (not easy) and to take charge of their finances on their paths to achieving rich and fulfilling lives.
Common Sense Investing is a popular mini-course
This course in part of a bundle of mini-courses that comprise the Finance Your Dreams course. This shows the suggested learning path, but the courses also may be viewed in any order.
Curriculum (via video lectures, quizzes, handouts)
Required to Start: Live Below Your Means
Rule #1: Develop a workable plan
Rule #2: Invest early and often
Rule #3: never bear too much or too little risk
Rule #4: Diversify
Rule #5: Never try to time the market
Rule #6: Use index funds when possible
Rule #7: Keep costs low
Rule #8: Minimize taxes
Rule #9: Keep it simple
Rule #10: Stay the course