The Simple Path to Wealth | JL Collins | Talks at Google
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN points people to it as the clearest single video on simple, long-term index fund investing.
What it is
Author JL Collins discusses his book The Simple Path to Wealth at Google, covering avoiding debt, simple index fund investing, and retirement accounts like 401(k)s and IRAs. It is an hour-long interview in plain language.
Recommended by 7 HN commenters across 7 different months, 2019 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec f0e4c2f7 · 2021-10 · on “Redditors are right about the unfairness of the market”
> buy real things that appreciate over time Companies are real things that appreciate over time. Stock is ownership of that. I wouldn't characterize it as a scam exactly. I do think people underestimate how clever markets are and would advise against trying to outsmart them. There is a different kind of bet you can make which is to buy a small part of the entire US economy on the assumption that it will continue to grow during your lifetime. Thats what an index fund is. It's a boring bet with modest returns. A lot has been written about index funds. This video is probably the most clear resource I can think of that has all the information in one place. [this video]
Recommends patrickk · 2019-11 · on “Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?”
Reddit FIRE is also worth reading: [LINK] Also JL Collins' book "The Simple Path to Wealth" is well worth a read, on the same topic. If you don't want to get it, this talk covers the basics: [this video]
Recommends caro_douglos · 2019-12 · on “Ask HN: How do you consume noisy financial news?”
JL Collins [1] has a great talk at Google I discovered while perusing youtube[2]. He taps into Warren's advice of not watching the markets too closely (mentioned in your second link). [1] [LINK] [2] [this video]
Recommends mister_tee · 2021-03 · on “The Joy of Fuck-You Money (2018)”
JL Collins was I think my introduction to the financial independence concept though I'd "accidentally" been investing in index funds and for retirment before. That series of posts (the "Stock Series") is great and it's available in edited book form called "The Simple Path to Wealth." Or for a video intro, he gave this 1hr Talk@Google: [this video]
Recommends murm · 2021-06 · on “How do I start investing?”
I think this video[0] fits nicely to your situation. JL Collins lays out how to invest for your retirement using index funds, explained in simple and commonsensical terms. [0] [this video]
Recommends ggop · 2022-05 · on “Ask HN: How to invest savings?”
JL Collins has some good advice. Unbiased and simple to follow rules for long term investment: [LINK] Good introduction: [this video]
Recommends qnleigh · 2025-12 · on “Ask HN: What skills do you want to develop or improve in 2026?”
I'm not downvoting you, but I think you are probably getting downvoted because "Stock trading can be quite lucrative" is statistically just not true. Even professional financial advisors almost never beat the market [0]. Only hedge funds that pay for huge amounts of priveledged financial information do, and even then not always. Here's a good video that makes a case for this. Even if you don't agree, you might find some of the points he makes interesting. But tl;dr, he argues that index funds basically always outperform other methods, so one should primarily invest in things like that. [0] [this video]