Investing is a great way to start your journey to financial freedom. Investing is an amazing way to set yourself up for the future. There are many different ways which you can invest your money to grow your portfolio and net worth
The sooner you start investing your money the better, whatever you invest in it is a lot better than leaving your money in the bank.
Bank interest rates are nowhere near as good as some of the returns you can get from investments
Before you invest any money to create a return on investment, make sure that you invest in yourself. This can include:
Education - Reading, listening, taking courses and classes
Physical health - Eat healthy, workout
Here are some great books for personal development which can change the way you think and can completely change your life:
How to win friends and influence people
The 7 Habits of highly effective people
The power of now
Rich Dad poor Dad
Single Stocks
Single stocks are when you buy shares in a public company. These companies trade on the open stock market. So essentially when you buy stock in a company you are now classed as a shareholder, this means that you own a stake in the company. And single stocks can even go up or down in price so share. The way that you will make money by buying single stocks is when the price per share goes up.You can make some great returns in singular stocks however it can be considered as a risky investment. Before investing in any singular stock You should do the research and make sure that the investment you were making is worth the risk.
Some great websites to research stocks are:
Yahoo Finance
The Motley Fool
Google Finance
Factors which cause the companies stock price to go up or down are:
The amount of shares being bought vs sold (If more shares are bought vs sold the stock will go up, the same applies to the reverse) This is due to supply and demand
The amount of shares available - If a company offers more shares then the shares become diluted and the share price will drop
Some of my favourite investing platforms are:
Trading 212 (EU)WeBull (US)
ETFs (Exchange traded funds)
ETFs are funds which mirror an index, commodity, sector, or other assets. ETFs Are similar to singular stocks The price goes up and down based on the supply and demand. However an ETF is a basket of multiple stocks. This makes ETFs safer than singular stocks - If a singular stock goes down then so does your investment value, with an ETF if a stock goes down then there are other stocks which could be going up so you would not lose money on your investment. You will only lose money on an ETF if the whole index loses money. ETFs are great long term investments. Favoured ETFs by many people are ones which mirror the S&P 500. The S&P 500 is an index of the top 500 companies on the stock market - Historically the S&P 500 gains around 10% per year. With an ETF you don’t need to worry about managing many separate stocks therefore they are often less stressful to invest in compared to single stocks, but the return on investment can be less than what you would get on a singular stock which is going up. My ETF investing platform is Trading 212, you can invest in ETFs easily by using their ETFs tab.
Crypto Currency
Crypto currencies are a relatively new way of investing. Crypto currencies are digital currencies; these currencies or tokens can offer different uses. The prices go up and down similarly to stocks, based on the supply and demand. Crypto currencies are a lot more volatile than regular stocks - They go up and down over a shorter amount of time.
This means that investing into crypto can carry great risks, however you have the potential to see great return on investments in a short amount of time.
Some websites which are good for researching crypto are:
Coin Market Cap - Access to data on all coins which are on exchanges
Coin Market Cal - Access to the upcoming events on Crypto coins
Some of my go to investing platforms for crypto are:
Binance CoinBase
Your Own business
Investing into or starting your own business is a form of investment. You can start any type of business which you want. You can get a great return on investment from your own business. To find information on types of online businesses you can start see the Online businesses tab on this website. Starting your own business can carry risk as your return on investment is based on how well your business performs
Commodities
A commodity is a tangible good that can be bought and sold or exchanged for products of similar value. Natural resources such as oil, gold and silver are some good examples of the most traded commodities. Just like stocks the value of commodities change based on supply and demand. Commodities are seen as a safe way to invest.
Commodity funds and stocks can be easily purchased using the Trading 212 app
FOREX
The foreign exchange (also known as FX or forex) market is a global marketplace for exchanging national currencies against one another. Exchange currencies are very volatile and due to this risk is very high. To be a successful forex trader you need to be very knowledgeable with day trading.
Never invest in forex if you don't understand the markets, it is very easy to lose money with forex investing. For forex trading the CFD account on Trading 212 is my go to. There are also many other websites you can use out there.
Real estate
Real estate investing refers to the purchase of property as an investment to generate income rather than using it as a primary residence. Some of the examples of real estate are a house, office building and agricultural land. With real estate you can find some great finds which are under market value. Ways to make money from real estate investing are:
Flipping - Buying a property for under market value, renovating it and selling it
Letting - Buying a property and renting it out to a tenant
BRRR (Buying for under market value, renovating, renting, remortgaging) - This strategy is a great way to build your property portfolio as you use the equity in the property to remortgage to get money from the bank and then you can repeat the process again with another property. However this method requires a tenant in each property, which makes it greater risk.
PLEASE NOTE: Investing money carries risk and you could lose it all, none of this is financial advice. Always conduct your own research before investing any of your money
