Finance Forum: A place to ask and answer personal finance questions

Since nearly a decade ago, when I started working for one of the most prestigious banks on Wall Street, I have always been fascinated by the beauty of the financial markets, its importance to global economy and its relevance to our daily lives. What fascinates me even more is the lack of a bridge between financial markets and the broader society. The purpose of this post is to start a conversation within our community to address this exact issue. We, with the help of this community, will answer any finance related questions and try to build a consensus, and provide practical solutions when applicable. We will continuously organize and assemble all that information into to this post for the benefit of this community.

Personal Finance: A Universal Dilemma

We all face a lot of unknowns and question marks when it comes to our finances in the coming years and decades. Of course we are all different in terms of our current financial situation, future earnings expectations and life style and spending habits. But we all have these factors in common for the horizon of years and decades:

• A set of expected cash inflows (either from wages, investments, luck, etc)
• A set of recurring spending expectations (which depends on your life style, location, family size, etc)
• A target date beyond which we are financially independent (i.e., we can live off our savings and investments)
• A set of ideals for where we want to be financially in the coming years and decades (wealth expectations)

The purpose of this post is to start a conversation in our community about these unknowns and together build an encyclopedia of best practices when it comes to investing and financial planning. I will be updating this post as new questions and answers get addressed here and a consensus is built.

Here is what we will do

Let's kick this off with a set of questions that you might have:

1. Is investing in stocks a good idea? If yes, for whom?
2. I have $5000 that I will not need to access immediately for the next couple of years. How can I invest it?
3. Is the cryptocurrency market still a good place to invest?
4. Can you earn decent money online?
5. How much do I need to make before I retire?

If you find any of these questions interesting or have your own question about personal finance or wall street, ask them below and let's find an answer for you together!

Let's go community! Feel free to answer any of these questions or ask your own.