The Simple Path to Wealth | JL Collins | Talks at Google
The Simple Path to Wealth | JL Collins | Talks at Google on HackerTube: recommended by 7 Hacker News commenters across 7 separate months, 2019–2025.
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.
What HN commenters said
7 Hacker News comments link this video. Each one links back to its thread.
f0e4c2f7Oct 2021Strongly recommends
> 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
in “Redditors are right about the unfairness of the market” · View on HN
qnleighDec 2025Recommends
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
in “Ask HN: What skills do you want to develop or improve in 2026?” · View on HN
ggopMay 2022Recommends
JL Collins has some good advice. Unbiased and simple to follow rules for long term investment: [link] Good introduction: ▶ this video
in “Ask HN: How to invest savings?” · View on HN
murmJun 2021Recommends
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
in “How do I start investing?” · View on HN
mister_teeMar 2021Recommends
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
in “The Joy of Fuck-You Money (2018)” · View on HN
caro_douglosDec 2019Recommends
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
in “Ask HN: How do you consume noisy financial news?” · View on HN
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patrickkNov 2019Recommends
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
in “Ask HN: What's the most valuable thing you can learn in an hour?” · View on HN