What advice would you give to someone who’s on the fence about investing? I asked the RadReads community for their best tips, here’s what y’all came back with:
- You don’t need a lot of money to start investing. Start now.
- Don’t check your investments everyday (or even every week).
- Automation = simplicity. Set up a recurring deposit and leave it.
- Don’t try to time the market.
- Understand that there’s no “magic solution,” and this includes passive investing.
- The best plan is the one you can stick with (consistency > everything).
- General baseline expectation = 6-8% as a long term real return of equities.
- Passively managed portfolios > actively managed portfolios.
- Learn how (powerfully) compounding works for both investments and for debt.
- Retirement savings isn’t just for your 40s and 50s. What really matters is what you do in your 20s and 30s.
- Buy index funds or ETFs. Fees make a big difference.
- Learn the priority pyramid – start at the bottom and work your way up.
- Don’t jeopardize your savings/retirement plan by experimenting with stock picking.
- If you want to buy individual stocks, open an account at a low cost custodian with <5% of your investable assets and learn by doing.There is no better way to learn than by doing – even if it means losing some money.
- Have humility.
Here are the follow-up links:
- A “flow chart” to prioritize savings (Medium)
- The futility of market timing (reddit)
- Why I’m obsessed with YNAB (RadReads)
- PortfolioVisualizer for correlations and back-testing
- Budgeting with intention (NYT)
- Doing it “for your kids” (RadReads)