christopherchapman.org

About

Website Address
What This Website Is Not
Flirt To Convert
My Ideal Job
My Intended Audience
2025, 2026, and Beyond
youtube.com/@christopherjohnchapman

Common Internet Scams

Cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency Scams
Airdrop Scams And Smart Contracts
Professors And Other Cast Members
Romance Scams

Online Dating Or Merely Dating Adjacent

Be Classy
Do You Own Your Own Home?
His or Her Profile Disappeared?!
Matchmaking Service
Nature Abhors a Vacuum
No Reply Is In Fact A Reply
Understanding The Sales Cycle

Politics

A Very Real and Very Public Exercise In Denial

Recovery Scams

What Is A Recovery Scam?
Recovery Scams Are... On Point?

Scam Awareness: Concepts

Challenges
FAQ
Keywords
Phishing
Red Flags!
Subscribe, Unsubscribe?
Too Good To Be True
Understanding Website Addresses

Scam Awareness: Tools

When Was a Website Created?

Timeshares

Timeshares AKA Vacation Clubs
Versus
Internet Scams

Television And Related Technology

YouTube
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YouTube Premium
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YouTube TV

Employment And Small Business Topics

Does Where You Went To School Matter?
Outsourcing

Financial Literacy

3 Steps Towards Financial Enlightenment

3 Steps Towards Financial Enlightenment

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Website Dedication

This web page will describe what I call the 3 steps towards financial enlightenment.
How is the theme of this web page similar to calling Klaus Schwab a Bond villain?

I do not know who first likened Klaus Schwab to a James Bond villain.
I do not know who first tried to communicate the theme of this web page.

However, in both cases, even if whoever had been first had remained silent, many people would have independently reached the same conclusion.

Understanding the material on this web page will help you to both:

avoid outright scams
and
begin to understand legitimate investing

The Three Steps

Step 1: Literal Truth?
Someone in the media makes a case for a particular investment.
In the above sentence, I mean "media" in the absolute broadest possible terms, to include for example: radio, television, web pages, or any other communication tool.
You listen to or read his or her presentation.
The presentation may or may not use language such as:
"When you back out the cash on the company's balance sheet, you are getting the business for free!"
You then either strongly consider making the investment, or you outright actually make the investment.
If you consistently invest on the basis of such predictions, you will almost certainly lose large amounts of money.
"Almost certainly lose large amounts of money" is a highly optimistic way of putting your odds.
Step 2: Contrarian Indicators?
You eventually understand that predictions may be from people who either have a business interest in promoting a given investment.
With that knowledge, you do the opposite of whatever someone in the media says.
If someone says buy, you sell.
If someone says sell, you buy.
Among the challenges with contrarian indicators is that they may be statistically significant but not economically significant.
While it may be tempting to think that contrarian indicators can lead to easy money, that is simply not reality.
Step 3: Zen Enlightenment!
Step 3 is understanding that you as an individual investor trading only on public information cannot consistently beat the market.
As such, you should construct a portfolio consisting of cash and index funds in bonds and stocks consistent with your time horizon and tolerance for risk.

I chose to break the learning process into 3 steps.
Other sources may or may not choose a different number of steps.
Even worse than to never reach step 3 would be to be to reach either step 1 or step 2, and to falsely believe that you understand how to invest your money and/or other people's money.