(Written by Dorota Lewna, posted by Sebastien Aguilar)
The Bogleheads® UAE Chapter Dubai Meetup 16 was presented by Brahim Laraiki at Abu Dhabi University at the Dubai Campus on Saturday 30 of September.
Brahim shared with us his journey towards becoming an index investor. He has done an immense amount of research on the options he had, from contacting and talking to financial advisors to reading books, articles and doing on-line courses. Based on this Brahim gave several suggestions on books to read, such as “The Bogleheads Guide To Investing”, “Random Walk Down Wall Street”, “Economix – how our economy works” and few others which gave him an overview of other ways to think about investments and the basic knowledge about the economy in general. Brahim recommended strongly to go through the Morningstar finance 101 course, which taught him a lot about the practical approach to investing, principles and vocabulary used in the investment industry.
Brahim's presentation has highlighted few areas which are important for someone who is just starting on their path to investment, vocabulary which is often confused or fundamental ideas which are often misinterpreted. As an example - the difference between investing vs. trading and passive vs. active investing. This was definitely a good guide for those who are just starting to navigate through this new world of personal finance and investing.
The presentation also went through the principles of investing Bogleheads style and guided the listeners through the basics of building a portfolio referencing to Brahim's own experience.
As the group grows there are new member joining who are interested in listening to the basic principles and learn on how to set up their own portfolio. We believe that presenting the experience by one of our members is a great way to share and learn from each other, after all every one of us had to go through the learning process.
Dorota