ayla,
Research, sure helps and of course watching what the gurus do and their reasoning behind their moves is even better, but I’m the same way, I gotta jump in and learn by doing, when its real life and on the line. I’m just more of a hands on guy. It’s hard to get motivated for the hypothetical stuff.
I was a buy and hold type, until I found this site. Then slowly but surely (yep, very big learning curve also), I have felt more comfortable moving my funds around and have definitely done better than before. I even understand a lot of the terms used, i.e. channel, and now enjoy watching Bloomberg TV.
Being an engineer (we'uns can be kinda anal :nuts: ), I’ve really gotten into studying everything I can on the market. Talk about taking the proverbial drink from the firehose, but by the time I retire, I plan on managing my own money or at least 50% of it. At the least, I’ll know where and what I should be doing with it.
I don’t know about the Fed agencies, you all work at, but here, they save explaining what you should be doing with your money, in regards to saving and investing, until the end of your career and call it a pre retirement seminar.
They should be teaching that class to the new hires, but hey, the guvment is always late with everything. Well, I guess better late than never.
A big thanks to all you guys who make this site possible.
CB