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Thanks - in the books I've read so far and on this forum, I keep seeing the BRK annual letters as great learning material... Adding this to the list. Really good advice.. It makes sense the most important thing is to figure out what kind of investing philosophy works for me. Good advice here again on "knowing yourself". The emotional/cognitive bias lessons in the material were powerful reminders of the need to monitor and self-discipline. This is a great idea - thanks for sharing. I recall in Snowball, Buffett mentioned some of his very first ideas came from others (Ben Graham & Security Analysis) and learning along the way. Really good overview of some important considerations.. Thanks for all the input guys; lots to think about and more to do before I feel I'm ready. Anyone know of a forum FAQ or similar posts about getting started?

Good advice... No where to go but out and up with my circle of competence.. Sounds dangerous... being a good investor is being willing to sit on capital until you know the pitch you want to swing at. Being disciplined enough to sit on cash for another 6 months (when you really don't want to) would probably be good exercise. Your response feels right to me. Guess I just wanted to confirm it.

Hey guys, I've been viewing these forums for awhile now; I respect and liken to the philosophy of value investing and have been looking to learn from experts and peers. My basic question: how did you guys get started? What would you recommend? I've been working in corporate finance and institutional asset management for 2 years, have my CMA, sitting for the 3rd CFA exam in June, have recently read The Snowball and The Intelligent Investor (loved it!), and currently breezing through One Up on Wall Street. I have a good amount of capital sitting in a savings account earning a measly 14bps since I began working and want to start putting it to work. My goal is to grow my value investing knowledge and confidence to begin making individual stock investments. My current weakness; I can only devote 10-20 hours per week until after my June exam and I have no investing experience beyond my studies and institutional work experience. It goes against my conscience to try to time the market between now and June, but I've sat on my capital for long enough. I'm thinking dollar-cost-average into index funds until after June when I can start moving out into companies I've thoroughly analyzed. Thoughts?