Some like to say that investing is not for the fainthearted, not for the uneducated; but I completely disagree. If anything the fainthearted and those with little knowledge of investing in the markets have a distinct advantage.
Why should the fainthearted invest? Simple, because if you are like this, afraid of losing your money, afraid of taking a risk, then you already have a major advantage over most investors. You have the advantage of not wanting to hold onto losers, of not wanting to suffer.
Sure you may not always act like a super decisive action hero, but you know what you don’t want. You don’t want to lose!
It is similar for those with little or even no knowledge about investing in the stock market, particularly safe investing.
If you have limited knowledge you don’t have any bad habits, no pre-conceived thoughts about how to invest safely and profitably. In fact a new investor who is willing to learn the basic, yet simple, proven techniques and utilize an easy yet powerful software program can do just as well as a sophisticated, “experienced” investor because as a new investor you are willing to follow the path of success.
How do you turn faintheartedness or lack of knowledge into an advantage?
Recognize and write down:
- How much time a week can you find to invest in your financial future? (25 minutes can do it)
- Can you use a computer?
- Do you have access to the internet?
- Can you read one – three articles a week for a few months about investing (I have written more than 75) to learn key principles of safe investing? (there are many sources and authors)
- Are you willing to ask for help when you don’t understand something?
You don’t have to be a millionaire or even have hundreds of thousands of dollars to start investing, to be sure a retirement account will grow and not suffer or die when the economy tanks for a few years. All it takes is a few dollars and the desire to secure your future to get started.
One key to easily and successfully succeeding in the investment world is to find a good software program; one that fits your personality and will work with you.
If you like everything visual, perhaps you would prefer a chart program that gives buy-sell signals.
If you like to be given recommendations but don’t want to do analysis yourself, then perhaps a program that simply gives out recommendations based on its own proprietary methods would work for you.
If you do like to figure things out, then a program that lets you manipulate or sort data to find investment recommendations would be up your alley.
A few investment programs combine charts and different types of analysis and even let you set the buy-sell rules.
In other words there are many types of investment programs available. Some require major learning curves, some offer one-to-one support.
But the fact is: you can succeed in the stock market precisely because you want to, because you may be fainthearted and afraid of losing or haven’t had your brain pumped full of false investing ideas.