Ways to start and what you need to know
Investing doesn’t require you staring at charts, account sheets, and candlestick graphs for hours. If you’re wondering about how to start investing, you can start investing with very minimal money and let it grow by itself. Invest wisely so that your money works for you to make more money.
How to start
Investing is an essential part of money-making which is why everyone should start investing. Starting to invest has two parts – understanding the basics of investing and finding the right investment strategy.
We have a detailed article on both which we recommend reading if you are a beginner trying to figure out how to start investing.
When to start
There is no better time to start investing than ‘now’. Doesn’t matter if you are a student, fresher at work, or C-level officer, if you haven’t started investing yet, do it now.
Students can start trickle investing; starting at $50 in assets like equity and crypto while at the same time understanding the ins and outs of investing.
Where to start
Investing choices are abundant and there are a lot of automated, semi-automated, and managed investment vehicles to get started on. No, we are not talking about the trillion-dollar hedge funds. You can start investing as low as $50 from day one, even without much knowledge in investing. Here are some of our picks for you.
The question of where should you invest and how to start investing is where most struggle. Once the first step at investing is made, the whole ocean looks like an easy sail. We’re here to bust the fear of first-time investing and help you make baby steps in investing.
Robo-advisors
Robo-Advisors are investing accounts that automatically allocate your funds to various mutual funds, ETFs, and other investing mediums.
On opening a robo-advisor account you will be prompted to answer a few questions to identify your investing goals and risk appetite. From then you can add funds in any size, any time and the algorithm will balance your investments across various asset classes for the best outcome based on past performance data.
Nothing comes for free. So does the robo-advisor account. You will be charged a nominal fee far lesser than human advisors or managed funds. Robo-advisor accounts are a great choice if you are getting started and don’t want to get into the numbers and charts of investing.
Investments funds
If you want a little more control and allocate funds yourself, Index Funds, Exchange Trade Funds (ETFs), and Mutual Funds are good options. Here your money is part of the pool that is invested in a genre like a commodity, top 50, etc. Mutual Funds are actively managed, ETF are passively managed, and Index Funds require even lesser management.
Mutual Funds and Index Funds can be bought and withdrawn like operating money in and out of an account and come with a small fee.
ETFs are very similar to Index funds except they are traded in the exchange so the fees are lesser comparatively. The minimum barrier to investment funds is a little higher at around $500.
Start with Real Estate
“Ninety percent of all millionaires become so through owning real estate.”
– Andrew Carnegie
Real estate is the most solid asset class that gives both rental revenue, and revenue through appreciation. But investing in real estate comes with its own drawbacks of being a landlord.
But don’t worry, owning a real piece of land is not the only option to investing in real estate. REITs and Real Estate Crowdfunding are gaining popularity which enables people to start investing as low as $5,000 and also have a diversified portfolio of family and commercial properties.
