Investment Tips for Beginners

My blog focuses on Financial Literacy. It’s a good idea to start investing money, but beginning can be tricky, especially for novices. The following contributed post is entitled, Investment Tips for Beginners.

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If you’ve come into some wealth and you find yourself with an abundance of money that you don’t know what to do with, you might consider investing it. The thing is, if you’re a beginner and you’ve never had this kind of money before, investment can seem like a very daunting process. If you’re cautious about losing the money you’ve just come into, the last thing you might think about is investing it elsewhere, especially if you’re scared about what the return could be?

The thing is, if you’re sitting on wealth, it should be working for you. It’s just smart to make sure that you’ve set yourself up for your future and any future children you have. We’ve put together a checklist of things that can help you as a beginner so that you can learn to invest your money and become intelligent about how to keep it moving.

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1. Don’t invest in something you don’t understand. You may have heard about the price of Bitcoin, but do you know what Bitcoin is? Given the proliferation of novel investment products, it’s a good idea to keep your money to yourself until you fully understand what a product does and what it could be doing for you. Never make an investment that you don’t fully understand, especially when it comes to its risks. You want to be careful about avoiding any investing fads, especially those that don’t stand the test of time.

2. Seek out the advice of a financial planner. It’s a nice idea to have a financial plan, but you need somebody to help you with that plan. You should have a financial plan that includes goals and milestones, and these goals and milestones should include setting targets for having specific amounts saved by specific dates. If you have a plan for your money, you can watch it grow and tick off all of the things you want to achieve. For example, you might want to have enough money to facilitate buying a house. You might want to start a college fund or an emergency fund. If you can start taking off these items, you can literally see your money working for you.

3. Put savings first. Before you become an investor, the very first place that you need to learn to invest in is yourself. You can’t invest without having money to invest, and unless you have been given a huge investment, then you need to consider how you can build the wealth so that you can invest the wealth. Setting aside a portion of your paycheck for savings is a good idea, and if your employer offers a savings plan such as a 401K, it can be a good way to make saving automatic for you. If you struggle to save and you’re impulsive in your spending, then get external help with making sure that your savings stay on track.

4. Start learning terms like compounding. Start saving and investing on a systemic mathematical basis. Compounding as early as possible can allow you to take full advantage of its power. Compounding can help you to increase your wealth. It’s important that you understand all of the investment terms so that you can invest your money in the right places and at the right time.

5. Talk to somebody about risk. Investment risk has many aspects such as the default risk on a bond or the volatility that come with stocks. Bitcoin is not as new as it used to be so you still need to learn about Bitcoin. It’s insurance out pros and cons before you put any money into it. You also have to determine your own tolerance for risk. How much can you be prepared to lose should an investment go wrong? What if you put your money into stocks and the stock market crashes? These are questions that you do have to answer, because otherwise, what’s the point in investing your money in the first place?

    Image source: Pexels

    6. Understand how to diversify your portfolio. If you do get comfortable investing your money in one place, you need to learn how to diversify so that you can spread your wealth and make sure that it’s growing in different directions. Diversification involves putting your investment portfolio among a variety of investments so that returns or losses could be offset by above average returns or.In another area.

    7. Keep your costs as low as you can. While you can’t control the future returns that come with your investments, you can control the costs, such as transaction costs or investment management fees. These can be a drag on investment performance. If you understand how to keep your costs low, you’re going to be able to keep your investment profits high.

    8. Discuss classic investment strategies. When you get help from a financial advisor, ask them about the investment strategies that you should understand as a beginner. For example, do you know the difference between active VS passive investing or income oriented versus gains oriented investment investing? Investment managers can help you to beat the market, but there are very few out there that do it consistently enough over the long term.

    9. Stick with it. If you’re investing for the long term, you do need to be disciplined with it. Don’t get excited or rattled by market fluctuations because you need to look at the long term figures, not what happens overnight. Media coverage of the markets can be sensationalist, so you need to make sure that you’re taking the advice of the investment manager that you’ve chosen rather than watching the headlines.

    10. Make sure that you think like an owner. Your investment shares are going to make you an owner in what you do. You own a portion of those shares so you want them to be profitable. You have to be an intelligent long term investor and not a short term speculator. So think about how a prospective business owner would think before they buy a stock and go with that line of thinking yourself.

      Author: anwaryusef

      Anwar Y. Dunbar is a Regulatory Scientist. Being a naturally curious person, he is also a student of all things. He earned his Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Michigan and his Bachelor’s Degree in General Biology from Johnson C. Smith University (JCSU). Prior to starting the Big Words Blog Site, Anwar published and contributed to numerous research articles in competitive scientific journals reporting on his research from graduate school and postdoctoral years. After falling in love with writing, he contributed to the now defunct Examiner.com, and the Edvocate where he regularly wrote about: Education-related stories/topics, Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), Financial Literacy; as well as conducted interviews with notable individuals such as actor and author Hill Harper. Having many influences, one of his most notable heroes is author, intellectual and speaker, Malcolm Gladwell, author of books including Outliers and David and Goliath. Anwar has his hands in many, many activities. In addition to writing, Anwar actively mentors youth, works to spread awareness of STEM careers, serves on the Board of Directors of the Friends of the David M. Brown Arlington Planetarium, serves as Treasurer for the JCSU Washington, DC Alumni Chapter, and is active in the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace Ministry at the Alfred Street Baptist Church. He also tutors in the subjects of biology, chemistry and physics. Along with his multi-talented older brother Amahl Dunbar (designer of the Big Words logos, inventor and a plethora of other things), Anwar is a “Fanboy” and really enjoys Science-Fiction and Superhero movies including but not restricted to Captain America Civil War, Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice, and Prometheus. He is a proud native of Buffalo, NY.

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