Invest For Independence: The Key to a Brighter Financial Future for Beginners
Investing can be an essential and incredibly important stepping stone to long-term financial security. Investing often has an advantage over saving because, generally, stock market performance produces greater long-term returns than traditional savings accounts. Learning the basics of investing can help those interested in learning not only the risks associated with investing but also the long-term benefits of investing in stocks and bonds. When starting out in the investing world, researching various investments, deciding how much you want to invest and setting time-bound goals is important.
The Keys to Financial Independence Investing
Research, Awareness and Due Diligence
Research is an essential component of any investment strategy. As a beginner, a better understanding of the various types of investment accounts and techniques used in investing can help build the framework for future success. There are many social media investment hawkers spreading their “advice” across the internet. Many of these investment “gurus” might try to convince people to invest significant amounts of money into a quick turnaround investment solution. These types of investment strategies likely play to your emotions in an attempt to have you make a quick decision. This is speculation, not investing. By taking your time with investment decisions and ensuring you understand the risks, you can choose whether an opportunity is appropriate to help you meet your goals.
Embracing a Long-Term Strategy
While some investments can certainly deliver immediate returns, portfolio development requires understanding the risks. Being a long-term investor first can provide you with a secure foundation to build on and let you test the waters of the investing space. Investing is a long game, providing the perfect opportunity to look at the various types of investment funds, accounts and online tools — like the Marygold & Co. digital banking and financial services app — to begin your investment journey.
Regular Investing Fuels Growth
Good money management habits help inform a successful long-term investment strategy. Consistently investing with each paycheck can help foster a healthy attitude toward money use and can significantly grow your potential outcome. There is no right or wrong answer for how much money you should invest regularly, as everyone’s financial goals look different. However, regular contributions to your investment account can pay positive dividends well into the future and can even make a difference in hitting your investment goals. For many people, a good starting point is to understand if their employer provides a retirement plan. Some retirement plans offer an employer “match”, but the employee needs to be contributing to receive that “match”. If you are unfamiliar, ask your employer what retirement plan they offer, if any.
Goal-Oriented Investment Management
Goal setting is an essential aspect of investment management. Getting distracted by the high-risk, high-reward opportunities in the investment space is very easy. The fear of missing out on a potentially big payout can be overwhelming, but remember, diversification is an important part of a long-term investment strategy. Creating goals and organizing a structure for your investment process can eliminate stress while simultaneously setting you up for future success. Setting specific goals for your investments is important after identifying what your financial goals are. Whether you want to set up a retirement plan or purchase a house, investing toward an end goal helps motivate you for the long term and helps to provide insight on what you need to do to achieve your goals.
Many of us assume that investing to achieve our long-term goals is complicated, but it does not need to be! The key is to get started by figuring out our short-term and long-term financial goals. Once we have determined what our financial goals are, we now have digital tools available to us that utilize advanced technology to make the process of saving and investing easier than it has ever been. With a vast array of digital tools at their fingertips, beginner investors can now unlock unprecedented insights, effortlessly track asset performance and take control of their money like never before.
