Investing For Beginners

One of the most efficient ways to increase your wealth and allow your money to grow over time is by investing. Although there is a bit of risk involved with investing, it can prove to pay off by educating yourself on how and where to invest your money. Here are a few important steps to take when you’re starting out as a beginner with investing.

Invest in Stocks

Invest in common stocks, which will allow you to have equity in a company and reap the benefits if they succeed in the future. You can choose to invest in publicly traded businesses once private companies decide to sell part of themselves to outside investors with shares that become available. Avoid investing more money that you feel comfortable with to ensure that you don’t become emotional during the process. Avoid investing more than 10 percent of your money. The amount of money that you invest in stocks shouldn’t cause you to lose sleep at night.

Diversify Your Portfolio

Although loss is inevitable when it comes to investing, you can minimize the amount of money that you lose by diversifying your portfolio. Make it a point to invest in different types of companies and vehicles. It’s also important to avoid putting all of your eggs in one basket to avoid too much loss. You can invest in real estate, ETFs, mutual funds, bonds, and stocks. You’ll need to understand how each investment vehicle works while also understanding the pros and cons of each one.

Use a Demo Account

Many trading accounts will require that you have a minimum amount of money to begin purchasing stocks. You’ll need to pay a certain amount of money to get started on the account. Before putting up a large sum of money, consider practicing first with an online forex demo trading account, which will allow you to have a live market experience without the risk. The quick-start guide that is available can walk you through each step of the process and will allow you to have a balance of up to $10,000.

Determine the Type of Investor You Want to Be

You’ll also need to determine the type of investor that you’ll become. Some people prefer to become a long-term investor where they hold onto stocks for at least 10 years. Others may want a quick return and only hold onto stocks for less than a year. You can also choose to be a day-trader by constantly trading in and out of different stocks. This will require you to trade each day, week or month.

Do a Bit of Research

Investing will require you to put in a significant amount of work into the process to ensure that you can allow your money to grow. Expect to research different companies, read through company filings, and stay updated on the news to get a good rate of return.

Research large companies and look up their ticker symbol to get a description of the company and the PE ratio, which should be under 17, unless they a significant amount of growth. Look at their income statement and the last three years of the company’s revenue. There should be more revenue and profit each year while also viewing the balance sheet to see how much cash they have available. The company should have a significant amount of cash, which means that they aren’t at risk of going bankrupt if their stocks drop.

Consider putting $200 to $500 into one company before investing in more stocks in the coming months. Track the stock daily with the earnings number, how the stock price is doing, and if you’re making a profit. Give yourself two years to be heavily invested instead of investing thousands of dollars as a beginner.

When you want to learn how to succeed as an investor and understand how to trade stocks, there are several steps to take. By doing your research and having a bit of patience, you can reap the rewards over time and increase your net worth.

Adam Richards

About Adam Richards

Adam Richards is a semi-retired business professional originally from Bangor, Maine. He spent the majority of his career in sales and marketing where he rose to the marketing lead of a Fortune 1000 company. He then moved on to helping people as a career counselor that specifically helped bring families to self-sufficiency through finding them rewarding careers. He has now returned to Bangor for his retirement and spends his free time writing. This blog will be about everything he learned throughout his career. He'll write on career, workplace, education and technology issues as well as on trends, changes, and advice for the Maine job market and its employers.