I’ve always been a proponent of taking control of your finances and always being on top of them. It doesn’t matter if you have a financial planner or broker managing your income and portfolio, you need to be there, reading and understanding and being able to answer the “why” behind all the financial person’s strategies.
Some of us, though, don’t have that broker or financial planner. Many of us are new at this and face the market with a bit of trepidation and fear. We’ve heard the stories, read history and realize that our fortunes can be wiped away with a few bad investments.
Compounding that are the emerging companies like Robinhood and Webull that have zero commission trades. They allow us the opportunity to trade on our own. They offer a needed service, but when you are out there on your own, you have to be careful. You have to understand the market. You need advice, and no, not the ‘stop tip’ type of advice you got from your Lyft driver.
This Crypto currency craze has taught us that education is the key to making sure you have enough money to retire on. The fluctuations of the market can be severe and unforgiving. One day you are up a couple of grand and the next day, it’s all gone.
So, if you are going it alone, here are some things that you can do.
Educate Yourself About Investing
Look, if you go to Amazon and search for books, you’ll find countless offerings on how to get rich using the stock market. That’s not the education that I’m talking about. Take a common sense approach and study investing and look to those that have been doing it for years. Famous investors like Benjamin Graham, Warren Buffet, John Bogle and Peter Lynch, and the like have said quite about about safe investing. Anything by them is worth a read.
Use The Tools Offered by your Broker
For a few extra bucks a month, you can get access to additional tools that can help you read the market and give you a little more clarity about what is going on, and potentially what the future holds. Quite frankly, when I started investing, those Candlestick charts had me confused. But now, with familiarity behind them, they open me up to additional opportunities in the market.
Join an Investment Group
There are groups of individual on Facebook, Reddit, and other common social media sites that discuss investments. In addition, there are local groups that meet face-to-face to discuss the market and opportunities.
Be Careful with Margin Trading
You can make some good money by trading with other people’s money, but you can also lose a ton of money. Understand what it means to trade on borrowed money and the consequences it can have to your overall stock portfolio.
Take an Online Training Course
Investing is a big topic and there are a ton of course out there that you can purchase to help you better understand investing. Most of the course are video and can be easily streamed from you cellphone or tablet (or computer)
Join The American Association of Individual Investors (AAII)
The American Association of Individual Investors (AAII) has been around since 1978 and over the years have helped millions of people grow their investment knowledge. They offer a ton of tools, many free along with some premium services. They are an independent, non profit corporation that was formed for the purpose of assisting individuals in becoming effective managers of their own assets through programs of education, information and research.
You can check them out here.
Regardless of what direction you go, be sure that it is in a direction that provides you with the proper education to make solid, informed decisions about your portfolio.
