It's worth starting to learn about at almost any point in your life - (smart) investing teaches you how to look at numbers, be rational, fight off being impulsi

It's worth starting to learn about at almost any point in your life - (smart) investing teaches you how to look at numbers, be rational, fight off being impulsive, think critically, etc, etc. It's probably good to start learning about investing 2 to 3 years before you actually have any cash, especially talking with smart people about their portfolios. Then you can talk to them a year later, if they're candid they'll tell you how things went. It's interesting seeing my friends who bought trying to time the market largely got wrecked - one friend lost a lot trying to catch the falling knife of Indymac and Washington Mutual. Another friend who lives in Amsterdam is a more fundamental investor, looks at the numbers and the markets. He invested in Marvel before it got bought by Disney and Baidu after the crash, and made a lot since then. Long story short, it's a good brain exercise no matter what, it's a topic that matters to a lot of people, it's fun, it's very flexible, and so on.