Best Course In Investing?

[SaebScholar]

Acquiring assets, trading paper, buying and owning businesses. Financial education is something that I feel like I sorely missed out on going to school and I feel it's time to catch up. My financial IQ is zilch. I am trying to trim down the financial liabilities in my life and pay off my credit cards, but I want to start learning where to invest this extra money, and start making money work for me. I want to start creating cashflow. The topic of investing is super overwhelming, and what I need is a good solid all-around course. I would like to learn about how to trade stocks and stuff, but also how to find good deals in real estate, and things like that.

Any advice would be super appreciated, especially if you're already an investor yourself! (In which case let me sell my soul to you to be my mentor cheersmate )

I am talking about pro-active investing, no 401k 2% gains retire to be poor investing that is being pushed on us these days.

[dfrecore]

As an aside, my 401(k) made 31% last year, and 2% is ridiculous, so I'm thinking that you could do ok with a GOOD 401(k) plan rather than a crappy one.

Anyway, a good place to start is always a Personal Finance course (SL or Study.com), and then you can go to the library and start reading books on investing. You do not need to take a class in order to learn most of this stuff, and a lot of what's out there are get-rich-quick schemes that just want to take your money.

All of the things you list are separate, so there won't be a single course or book on this. You would just have to spend a little time on each area until you felt comfortable with them. Trading stocks is nothing like investing in real estate, and then there are so many different people with so many methodologies. You'd be much better off reading a bunch, and coming to your own conclusion about what you want to do, and how you want to do it.

[videogamesrock]

ITunes U, has a free course(s) from Mises Institute. I'm in the middle of the Central banking one. Mises has lots of lectures on economics and markets.

Learning to invest has lots to do with government, inflation, and learning to align your interests with banks. Once you understand how money and inflation works I'd recommend starting courses in taxation as that's the biggest expense in your life and sometimes death.

Courses that I recommend for entrepreneurs:


Personal finance (SL)
Intro to Investments (cc)
macro/micro economics (SL)
Individual Taxation (check your cc if not UCLA ext)
Corporate and Partnership Taxation (UCLA)
Taxes with real estate transactions (1031 exchanges are a great wealth builder) (UCLA)
Quickbooks and anything bookkeeping - like lawyers many accountants are terrible and you can learn a lot about your business by keeping your own records. (CC)
Any course in Banking especially central banking (learn how money works/inflation)
Sociology courses (beyond intro and not this race gender inequality stuff) - population behavior is important to know when investing
Political Science especially with constitutional focus, Marxism, communism etc - Sl American Government is a start
understanding your government is crucial when Investing. Study China and the Middle East. (AMU/APUS has lots)
Rio Salado College has 6 credits in property management that is elementary but is a good start regarding real estate investments.
Statistics - because making decisions based on data is important (SL)
Managerial Accounting (SL)
Paralegal courses on corporate structure, wills, trusts etc. National Paralegal College has many courses that cover legal and may transfer to COSC

Books:
All of the NOLO books on different entities
Rich Dad Poor Dad
Death of Money
Currency Wars
Wealth Poverty and Politics
[h=1]Advising the Small Business: Forms and Advice for the Legal Practitioner[/h]