The Motley Fool Guide to Investing for beginners by The Motley Fool

The Motley Fool Guide to Investing for beginners by The Motley Fool

Intro: 
Your Ticket to Financial 
Independence
Why do you want to invest? 
Some people have dreams of an early retirement. Others want to be 
sure they can afford to send their children to their college of choice. 
And many more want to be able to leave a legacy for their families. 
A few just want to buy a really sweet boat.
Whatever your reasons — and there’s no bad reason to invest — 
it’s really all about creating opportunity. You want to earn enough 
through your investments to ensure your financial comfort and to 
be able do the things that matter most to you. 
You may not realize it, but you’re about to embark on a journey to 
financial independence. In the same way modest initial investments 
can amount to life-changing sums down the road, these few modest 
pages might well make a huge difference in your life, enabling you 
to retire in your 50s, send your grandchildren to college, buy that 
summer place on Lake Whatchamacallit, or fly around the world in 
a zeppelin.
If you’re an investor — or a soon-to-be investor — you’ve probably 
heard of The Motley Fool. But you might not yet have a good grasp 
of what we’re all about and what it could mean for you.
The Motley Fool was conceived by David Gardner, Tom Gardner, 
and Erik Rydholm, who created the first issue of The Motley Fool 
printed newsletter in July 1993. The Fool debuted online a year 
later, with the same goal we have today: To help you to invest for 

yourself and gain control of your personal finances. 
We were founded as an antidote to the conventional wisdom that 
the individual investor was doomed to underperformance. In fact, 
we’ve proven empirically and unquestionably that individuals can 
beat Wall Street. 
Our mission is to help the world invest — better. 
The Motley Fool truly is a place with a passion and a purpose. 
Our workplace has won awards and been highlighted as one of 
America’s greatest places to work, and we settle debates at the 
foosball table. There is a lot of laughter within the walls of Fool 
HQ. But we are serious about the business of financial education 
and advice — after all, your money is on the line, and so is ours. 
Our name comes from Shakespeare, whose fools instructed and 
amused, and could speak the truth to the king… without getting 
their heads lopped off. We speak our minds.
We strive to educate, amuse, and enrich, all at the same time. We 
know that most people have never been taught much about finance 
or investing, and that a glance through the Wall Street Journal or a 
mutual fund prospectus can be confusing or intimidating. In the 
wake of the financial crisis and the Great Recession, many people 
stayed out of investing completely, missing out on the more than 
200% gains the market has posted since 2009.
Let us help you untangle and demystify the world of finance. Give 
us a little time, and we’ll show you how you can beat Wall Street 
at its own game. Your portfolio shouldn’t have much trouble 
trouncing 75% to 90% of professionally managed mutual funds. 
We think that the person who most has your financial best interests 
at heart is you. You’re the one who should be making the decisions 
affecting your financial future. And you don’t need an MBA, a 
bow tie, or a pair of suspenders. Believe it or not, some fifth-grade 

The Motley Fool Guide to Investing for beginners by The Motley Fool