Investing always carries an element of risk. Like anything in life, you’ve gotta risk it to get the financial biscuit.
Researching your investment choices and ensuring your comfortable with your decisions can help to alleviate some of that ‘shit, what am I doing feeling’.
After all, you must do something different than everyone else to get ahead. You have to take risks, make bold decisions, do research and make real moves.
Before I began my ‘journey’ I had the same concerns you do now, such as:
- What if the market crashes?
- Do I even have enough money to invest?
- Don’t I have to be a professional?
- What if I lose it all?
- My cousins friends sisters step brothers girlfriend invested and lost it all!
- How do I even go about it?
So, I searched Google like a bloodhound and found a bunch of answers and I suggest you do the same.
But, it was a bit like reading the reviews of a restaurant, some will be great and some will be bad and ultimately you take them all into consideration and go and find out yourself.
Yes it’s risky. Yes, I always regret not ordering the burger but hey, I understand the risk of that.
Yes the stock market will crash but if you’re a long term investor it won’t matter to you because the stock market always goes back up.
In the end, you must do your own research, get hyped and get educated and make moves.
Oh, and one more thing, only invest in what you understand. This is imperative, signing up to something you don’t understand dangerous and creates unnecessary risk.
Risk comes from not knowing what you’re doing
warren buffet
How I started
I started small.
Once I had achieved a certain level of financial knowledge I decided to smart small and build from there. It’s the same method I’d use for running a marathon, start with small runs and build from there.
I started with the minimum investment my platform would allow ($250) and just watched it. Importantly, I didn’t tinker with it or buy and sell constantly.
I just bought $250 worth of the S&P500 (500 largest companies in US) and watched it for about a month until I became comfortable with the gains & losses.
It’s pretty emotional, it’s literally your money going up and down, losing and gaining. It’s important to become accustomed to this feeling and understanding it’s normal and managing it.
Investor feel two emotions, fear and greed. Ensure you recognize these feelings as they appear and compose yourself otherwise you’ll make mistakes.
