kwani you are talking to yourself?

OK Maka

http://www.engadget.com/...a_dgi=aolshare_facebook

https://www.coursera.org/#course/accounting

http://wazua.co.ke/forum.aspx?g=posts&t=22036

You can start here, some of the classes are structured like a 16 week semester, I could offer to take a Financial Accounting class with you to walk you through it but not until mid May.

I spent a better part of my late teen and early 20 educating myself, my thinking was, if I go to school and master my stuff, I will be able to stay ahead. I went to B-sch smash most of my classes studying finance and economic before I landed in a grad school to study more advance finance classes along side the CFA, by the time I got out of school I thought I was going to take over the world with my finance knowledge.

My expectation about real world careers have actually change alot after 7 yrs of working. First during my internship we were ask to create some DCF models which we did but non of us could explain anything about it apart from, positive cash flow or negative cash flow. When I graduated, I was hired by a financial institution's sales and trading team and I was ready to use all my financial knowledge to select the best securities, Wrong!

Honestly, spending time looking at or learning finance or looking at finacial statement is a waste of time. I remember when I was in sales and trading, there was this guy at J P morgan by the name John Rex, Mr Rex was the top analyst in healthcare field meaning all you have to do is watch what John say and you'll be good if you are trading healthcare stocks. Full stop. You can spend hours and hours going through the statemants but what Mr Rex said matter more than what you'll find in the statement, also, remember, every company somehow manage their earning one way or the other and you're not going to get anything material by looking at the statement because anything material will be annouced by the company.

Instead of wasting your time learning all the stuff in finance and financial statements, you'll be better served if you spend time learning the industry your are interested in. If you are interested in biotechnology industry or consumer goods or telecommunication, learn the industry dynamics and drivers and be an expert in it, you're not going to be the top analyst by reading the statements or calculation NPV and IRR, infact no one want you to be an expert in finacial statement unless your making a living as an auditor to be successful in investment or to build a good corporate career being an expert in soft skills which include understanding the dynamics of the industry you are in is very important.

Drunkard 10k Rollout.

Assets=Capital+Liabilities

The balance sheet formula. Look for a company with lots of assets but also lots of capital.

Profit=Income-Expenses

The profit and loss formula. Look for a company making a profit.

Those are the fundamentals, we can proceed from here.

The guy just asked for basic knowledge of how to read financial statements, and you guys are telling him its not important? Its very important to know the basics, the more advanced stuff is what you can go without, but you have to know how to tell if a company made a profit or loss, what kind of assets & liabilities they have, their cash positions, their cashflows, their future outlook. That stuff is important

@Nabwire even mama mboga knows the difference from profit and loss, and they can find that without any formal education.

Asset, liabilities, cashflows and future outlooks are very complex to say the least, so those cannot be categorized as basics. Unless you want to be an accountant,don't waste your time learning finance/ accounting.

Huh?

@Deal this would be a perfect beginning point.

@Deal you've killed me, Homework!? Thats original, but people gotta learn. Thumbs up.