u/searlessly

Currently kicking myself for not having a good picture to share but too excited not to post now. I went out for my BFF's birthday last night and decided to take the plunge. I've had a gorgeous Loewe sitting in my closet for months waiting for the perfect time to make her debut. I was a little nervous because some of the girls with us are big fashionistas. Well, my lovely lady was a huge hit! So much so that one of the fashion girlies offered to buy her off me. It is now crazy to me that I waited so long on this one. It may sound silly but I've never had this much of a sense of imposter syndrome with a bag before.

This happened a couple of years ago but is fresh on my mind because a friend brought it up the other day. At the time, I was part of a really tight group of five- all of us were in the same masters program. In the middle of our second year together, Em got engaged to Ron. None of us liked Ron because he was loudmouthed, arrogant, and basically squashed Em's personality whenever he was around. But we adored Em and knew she was absolutely in love though Ron made constant jokes about her being attracted to his money.

Em morphed into almost a completely different person soon after the engagement. She no longer cared about studying and even flirted with the idea of dropping out. The only thing she cared about were Ron, the wedding, and pleasing Ron's mother, who turned out to be the bringer of drama.

During the engagement party, she pulled the four of us aside and explained what we need to know to "not embarrass ourselves" at the wedding. She basically told us that she was sure that none of us had ever attended such an elegant event and that since we weren't in society we wouldn't understand the expectations of guests. She proceeded to tell us that our gifts should have a dollar value of at least $500, that we should send her pictures so she could approve/reject our dresses, and that we were to limit ourselves to three drinks during the reception despite the open bar. None of this was okay with us but we smiled politely for Em's sake.

We did not know at the time that MIL actually tried to convince Em that shouldn't bother inviting the "riff raff" because she would have a whole new set of friends by the time the wedding came around.

Fast forward to the wedding. The ceremony was lovely and the reception was pretty amazing too. Em looked like a dream and even Ron was behaved. MIL was not. None of us know how it started, but MIL lost her shit and had a heated argument with her sister and the venue liaison. She caused quite a scene that included her dousing the poor guy with champagne and trying to forcibly remove her sister. Ron and his father tried to calm her down but she continued a tirade that was quite unbecoming in society.

There is a saying "you don't know what you don't know" and I'm smart enough to know there is still plenty of investing know how that I don't know or don't know well enough. Besides going to Wharton or studying for the series 7, what are good resources for an investor to get smarter? Where do you stay on top of investing news without getting a bloomberg terminal?

Not asking for beginner level information. Asking for sources to find advanced research or learn the know how to do advanced research myself so I can do better DD.