Unapologetically, IOI sees itself as a leading light in investor education – an increasingly crowded field focused seemingly on the “you can get rich fast by doing X right now”. While we may disagree philosophically that investing is a place where you can get rich quick (the probabilities are provably not in one’s favor there), investing IS a skill that one can learn and one can improve on and one can generate wealth for themselves and their families over time.
But, it takes time learn investing skills like company analysis, investment strategy, position sizing and portfolio management and for most of us, our lives are pretty full with work, family, exercise, maybe some sleep here and there – whether we are managing money for ourselves, our family or for others as an advisor.
So, how do we MAKE TIME to learn? To be an actively learning investor?
I’ve discovered three core ways to make time for learning in my busy life. These are in no particular order and I’ve also included some articles I’ve found helpful below.
- Take small bites against focused outcomes: What I mean here is to eat the elephant one bite at a time. Learning to invest can be overwhelming. Just the shear amount of media generated on investments daily is staggering. One way I deal with this is to set small goals that I can deliver in 30-60 mins of time. I sit down and watch a video, read, take in some kind of learning content, make my notes and get done. These may seem like small instances, but string these together daily for 3 months and you’ve just accumulated 45 hours of time (in 30 min sessions) against learning! If you’re able to make that 60 minutes each time, you’ve delivered 90 hours! This has by far been the easiest “learning new things” hack I’ve employed. You CAN find 30 mins a day to set aside.
- Leverage technology “helps”: Much of learning to invest successfully is about organizing information in a helpful way. So, efficiency in gathering and organizing this information is paramount if we intend to track and learn from what we are doing. Take the time to develop some systems to help you minimize the amount of time you take to gather and organize relevant information. Using tools like Evernote, Google Alerts, Company data and news dashboards (YCharts has a good one) helps me to do exactly this. I get the information I need on the topics I want delivered to me in a way that I can digest and, most importantly, USE!
- Get some accountability help: Here’s where partners, mentors, social systems can really make a positive difference in our learning lives. Take a minute and decide how you learn best. For me, it’s always been by learning from an expert and then working with that expert on my own problems. As an engineer and MBA, I’ve spent a lot of time with numbers-oriented types of problems. My teachers and mentors have made the most difference in the advancement of my skill set. You may learn best from peers. Whatever works. These people provide accountability to your learning process. They help keep you honest by giving you a level of competency to shoot for and setting up goals and deadlines. As an IOI member, we offer you a mentoring process and a group of like minded investors in which to practice and hone your craft.
Here are some other great resources for “Finding Time to Learn”.
Billy Beane on Making Better Decisions, Challenging Entrenched Thinking, and Avoiding Biases
How to find more time to learn something new
At minimum, please take the time to sign up for an online IOI membership and then get involved with IOI. Start by investing IN yourself! Ask questions. Exchange emails and set up calls with our principals. Meet some of the other IOI members and start an investor small group. Set some goals for yourself and your portfolio.
It’s all out there for you. You can be a better investor and we can help.
Above all – Invest Intelligently!