So, Investing Isn't Complicated After All

The Book That Made Investing Way Easier For Me

When I first started learning about investing, I’ll be honest — the stock market felt like alphabet soup. There were too many tickers, too many funds, and everyone seemed to have a different “hot tip.” Then I picked up Elements of Investing by Burton Malkiel, and this book grounded me. Also, it is a short read, it isn't that thick like the book The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham which took me days to finish, this book can be read in just on sitting.

When I read it, I had a lot of takeaways. The biggest one? You don’t need to overcomplicate investing. You don’t even need an advisor or pay AUM fees every year just to be told what to do. Because even if your portfolio drops, that advisor still gets paid — you don’t. This book teaches you how to manage your own fund confidently and keep your costs low.

I’m so glad I read it before actually putting money into the market. It explained what to look for when buying index funds — the kind that quietly outperform most managed ones over time. It also opened my eyes to tax advantages that come from just being smart and consistent.

The message is simple but powerful: it’s not about how much you make, it’s how much you keep. And sometimes, the biggest threat to your returns isn’t the market — it’s you. We panic, we chase trends, we think we can time things. But Malkiel reminds us that discipline wins.

After reading it, I understood that investing isn’t supposed to be exciting — it’s supposed to be steady. And if you want to dig even deeper into the emotional side of it, The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel is the perfect follow-up. Because once you grasp the “how” of investing, you’ll realize the “why we behave the way we do” is just as important.

So if you’re just starting out or feeling overwhelmed by the stock market noise, start with Elements of Investing. It might just save you from a lot of unnecessary mistakes — and money lost to fees you don’t even need to pay.

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