Beginners' step for US stocks investors

It would be an aspirational dream for every office worker to retire early and to live off passive income at a younger age where you are able to enjoy life to the fullest. (We have been discussing this since we were together so that we can live a life that we enjoy the most). Merely as a marketing practitioner, I see myself as someone with expertise in no particular field, which in turn allows me to explore multiple and alternative sources for passive income and investment is one of those trial-and-error journey that I took. Again, learning a new skillset is never too late.

I am a freshman to the US stock market, and like many other beginners to investment, I go through rounds and rounds of research without knowing where to begin from. Here's a first-hand simple and straightforward beginners' guide:

1. Select your trading platforms/apps. I am a non-US citizen so the ease of transfer of funding is the main consideration, usually the transfer can be handled through wire transfer or FPS. If you're doing the transfer from an overseas account like me, allow a 1 to 2 working days for the transaction. Given the huge volume of the new accounts on TD Ameritrade just recently, I opt for Firstrade where it takes less than 5 minutes for the new account creation and that the transfer can be swiftly done through wire transfer from my overseas bank account. For TD Ameritrade, please refer to one of the step-by-step guides here (please expect a 15-20 minutes of data filling)
2. Read analyzes from Barrons, Marketwatch and add the recommended stocks under your watchlist for your daily monitoring. As a beginner, I do "imaginary" trade to prove the analyzes
3. To begin with trading, learn the key differences between trading for the US stock market and your local trading market. Depending on what investment approach you take, a day trader is likely to be monitoring the performance throughout the trading day. While for overseas investors like me, it is clearly more realistic to build a diversified portfolio of stocks and hold on to it as a long-term investment
4. Set investment goals and review the stock portfolio from time to time.