Yeah I read theory

Marxist theory can give you insights on how to play the capitalist game. If you read it like a psychopath.

Matt Bruenig has a great and short tutorial on personal finance and investing, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Efr2UORgO2w

the graphic at 17:30 summarizes the hierarchy of savings (1. Emergency fund 2. employer-matched retirement 3. high-interest debt 4. other tax-advantage accounts 5. low-interest debt 6. taxable brokerage account) - he notes that he and most others will never make it to 6.

The graphic at 31:00 summarizes common pitfalls to avoid, unless you have a deep passion. 1. individual stocks 2. crypto 3. house flipping/renting (don't be landlord ... for financial reasons!) 4. expensive homes 5. private k-12 education

I'm ready to get dunked on but here we go

spoiler

I'm engaging in speculative trading (meaning: buying and holding stocks for 3-5 years) and betting on the rise of a multipolar world. In practice this mean for me: I pick a stock in the Chinese market that I think will eventually outperform a western company (e.g. EV, semiconductor, fusion, renewables, etc. - actually I picked a company that's on the US blacklist) and buy an amount where I'm ready to lose the money (I'm aware of the privilege) and just hold it. I follow the news mega so I get a good dose of financial press to keep up.

Kinda? The Proletariat in western countries is forced to invest to retire, unless you can get pensions or a large safety net. The stock market has already been "solved," the answer is broad market-cap weighted globak funds with low expense ratio. Anything else is mysticism and gambling.

well, some-controversy

I'm skeptical that one could, but intrigued one may.

Tbhbbq if it generates income, which can be spent on Good™️ stuff, and doesn’t hurt anyone in the process, I don’t have a problem with it—like that brief moment in time I had $4,000 and I spent close to $1K just giving money to my other homeless friends, including helping my junkie friends stay well here and there.