When I first started investing in 2001, I didn’t know much about stocks, mutual funds, and bonds, not to mention such technical terms as dividend reinvestment, asset allocation, and rebalancing. My first investment was Vanguard Wellington Fund that I purchased in December 2000. You may ask why I chose this particular fund over others. Well, the reason was very simple: I read some good comments about the fund’s history and past performance. Without knowing much about this fund, I mailed a check of $3000 to Vanguard the next day and started my first investment. That was how the whole investment thing began.

To fill the gap between my knowledge and the reality of investment, I started visiting financial websites such as MarketWatch, SmartMoney, and MorningStar, etc. Among them, my favorite is MorningStar and I especially like its Vanguard Diehards and Income & Divided Investing forum. Many knowledgeable people at the forums are willing to share their investment experiences and give advises for every issue that I could think of in investing.

Though the information I got from the forums were helpful, they weren’t not comprehensive enough and not systematic in getting some fundamentals about investing. So I started to buy and read some books on investing and personal finance. The first book I read was Common Sense on Mutual Funds*, by John C. Bogle, founder of Vanguard.

Click here to see the books that I have read and recommend for new investors.

*Amazon.com affiliate link.