We’re fortunate to live in an age where information is at our fingertips. If you’ve gotten more interested in investing and financial markets in recent years you’re not alone. It seems the combination of anaemic interest rates on bank savings, a proliferation in apps that make low cost investing easy, and reduced spending during COVID induced lockdowns have presented an unprecedented opportunity for many Australians to wade into the investment world. But as we’ve seen in the past couple of months, investment markets don’t always go up, prompting some new investors to look to up their knowledge base and better understand what is going on.
Now you’ve chosen to listen to a podcast called Financial Autonomy so I know I’m preaching to the converted here. Whilst I hope our content here on the Financial Autonomy podcast can be a great source of quality information, of course you should educate yourself from a variety of sources. So this week I wanted to share with you some of the financial literacy resources that I think you might find helpful.
Websites
By far the best source of financial literacy information on the web is the government’s MoneySmart site. Here you will find excellent calculators for all the financial fundamentals – budgeting, mortgages, and superannuation. There’s lots of articles on things like investing in shares and buying a home. And the content is all presented in easily understood language to ensure it is accessible to as many people as possible.
Another great website for upping your Financial IQ is regular Fairfax Money contributor Noel Whittaker. His site has several free resources and some great calculators. I find his drawdown calculator in particular very user friendly and helpful.
For those specifically interested in stock market investing, the ASX Investor page has some great resources that dig a little deeper than you will find in the other two sites mentioned. There’s even a free sharemarket game that enables you to do some pretend investing and see how you find the normal volatility that markets provide.
Podcast
Believe it or not the Financial Autonomy podcast isn’t the only money podcast around. Podcasts are a great way to learn whilst you’re driving the commute or out on a walk. If you’re in the hunt for a new listen in the financial literacy space, check out My Millennial Money by Glen James. Glen is a former financial planner and so not only does he know his stuff, he also understands the problems real people face. And he delivers his material with a good sprinkling of humour to make each episode an enjoyable listen.
Youtube
Another great source of financial literacy is Youtube. The challenge here can be filtering the quality content from those simply keen to share their particular spin on the world. You can get some pretty out-their programs on Youtube, and it’s a bit of a wild west environment where it seems like anything goes. So be cautious here and do a bit of digging on the presenter to understand their background and experience. Ideally source Australian produced content, which has the benefit of referring to items like superannuation and franking credits that are applicable to us, and also hopefully recognises the consumer protection legal framework within which we operate, thereby steering clear of the more outlandish claims made by those in less regulated jurisdictions.
Of the quality content on Youtube, CommSecTV is a good reliable source of market information and a great way to bring yourself up to speed with what’s happening right now on investment markets. They also provide some excellent company updates during reporting season which can be useful for those looking to buy individual stocks.
Books
What about books? Let’s not forget the old school.
Morgan Housel’s book The Psychology of Money is widely considered to be one of the best books put out in recent times exploring investor behaviour. I understand it’s sold more than a million copies, so plenty of people interested in improving their investment knowledge have made this investment. In a similar vein, The Behaviour Gap by Carl Richards uses diagrams to help explain concepts often buried in paragraphs of text.
Locally you can’t go past Financial Autonomy – The Money Book that Gives you Choice in my completely unbiased opinion. I take you through our proven framework, and it includes a downloadable workbook so you can create your own actionable plan.
We all know that investments in our knowledge can be the most profitable investments of all. I hope some of these resources help you move forward with your financial goals.
You may find it helpful to take a look at the blog post version of this post on the Financial Autonomy website, because in that I’ve hyperlinked all the different resources mentioned in this piece.
Back to All News
