How To Start Investing In 3 Easy Steps

posted on Nov 22, 2018

It has never been easier to invest

To be honest, as a young adult, I was terrified of investing, it sounded far-fetched like it’s something I should leave to older people who do not have so much responsibilities and therefore can afford to lose it all. Although I knew that the earlier I started investing, the more money I would have saved over time. The good news is that it’s never been easier to invest. These days, you can get professional advice at no cost.

A while ago, I was so excited to start investing after a professional investment sales agent was able to win my heart with the interest and other attractive benefits, that I would have asked where to sign up immediately, but my unbelieving Thomas was there to caution me. Not that signing up right away was a bad idea, but I had to take my time to understand the steps to take before I start investing and here they are;

Educate yourself

Before you start investing, it is advisable you take the time to educate yourself about the basics of personal finance. This is not suggesting that you take a course or start a paid class on personal finance, but merely reading books on personal finance would give you the basic foundation with which to start with. For instance, “The Intelligent Investor" (1949) by Benjamin Graham is one of the oldest books on investment but the lessons are still very applicable now. Reading books written by successful investors on investment is a god way to get started about all it really takes to start investing. Reading would also give you more confidence about your money and why you should start investing as soon as possible.

Pick the right strategy

When it comes to investing these days, you have a lot of options, but most beginners tend to choose one of these two:

Invest in mutual funds with their bank or an investment firm.

Start investing on their own with an online brokerage.

There’s nothing wrong with any of the above choices, so you really need to figure out what works best for you.

Although for a beginner, investing with a financial institution is usually the best option because, investing on your own would be quite overwhelming for a beginner.

Be patient with it

For many new investors, emotions may affect their decisions. It’s really easy to question your choices when you just deposited a large chunk of your money to start an investment. You might also become worried when the value on your investment seems to be decreasing especially when you are investing in the stock market. As earlier stated, it’s best you leave it to a financial institution to handle it for you. This way, the initial interest in your investment would not decrease no matter what happens in the stock market.

Finally investing doesn’t need to be scary, all you need is to visit a financial institution like Page Financials if you feel you cannot do it alone at no cost.