My approach here contradicts both the get-rich-quick schemes promised preposterously by so many websites and the jargon-laden technical discussions designed intentionally to confuse.  Instead, I offer the individual investor a step-by-step approach to investment success, served up in understandable, easily digestible, bite-sized pieces.

I begin small, as do most individual investors, offering a system for saving and choosing a bank or alternative institution.  From this straightforward base, we continue to investment clubs and other ways to get better returns on your savings.

Once you have accumulated enough capital, you can proceed to stocks and bonds.  I explain fundamental nature and properties, how markets value them and why prices fluctuate from day to day and year to year. From that base, I describe a reliable and low-maintenance approach to investing in stocks and bonds.  From there I move on to explain in straightforward and simple language more exotic investment devices, including options, futures, foreign investment, currencies, private equity, hedge funds, venture capital and more.

Along the way, I offer warnings, generally against too much emotion and the temptation to be too clever.  I also describe popular scams, some of which Hollywood has dramatized, such as the pump-and-dump scheme of The Wolf of Wall Street, and others, such as Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme.

The blog posts do not necessarily “go in order,” because not every investor starts from the same place.  But all will instruct.  Some posts will describe how to choose a bank. Others will answer the question what does a hedge fund hedge or how private is private equity.  One will explain how to start an investment club. A more systematic approach is better suited to a book than a blog.