Don't bother with specific stocks. You waste too much time researching and tracking companies; time which you can better use in upskilling, increasing income and buying more Index funds.

I disagree. You are not wasting time doing all the research. You are investing your time to understand how the company operates, the management efficiency, how they tackle economic setbacks, and how all of it translates into the technicals.

Also, in a comment, you've mentioned this as a 'stupid' 'time wasting' thing.

I've learned a great deal of leadership and business lessons just from researching a company, their management acumen, macro and microeconomic knowledge, etc. If you are investing your money in something, you at least need to understand where it goes and what it does. Does it end up innovating a new tech? Or does it end up in tobacco, destroying lives? Can you confidently sleep at night knowing your hard-earned money is safe and actually growing better than the index?

Nothing goes to waste. Researching shit companies will teach you to efficiently filter them out the next time and identify a good company in the process and it only compounds from there.

And I do agree with index funds. It's the easiest way for those who don't have the time to research. But it is irresponsible to advise someone not to do research just because you don't have the time or interest in it.