Investing money is not as simple as it sounds. Whether you are venturing into the investment world for the first time or you have been testing the stock market for years, investing can be both exciting and very rewarding but not without the chance that your strategy might have a downturn at any time. Everybody makes mistakes but when it comes to investing, you can learn either the ‘smart way,’ which means making yourself aware of things to avoid or the ‘expensive way,’ which means experiencing the pitfalls of these mistakes yourself.
Successful investing is not always about how much money you make but about how much money you keep. This is why it is better to familiarise yourself with as much information as possible when it comes to the most common errors in investing and taking steps to avoid them rather than suffering from their consequences first hand. By making yourself aware of some of the common mistakes other investors have already incurred, you will be able to keep your losses to a minimum and increase your potential for long-term investment growth.
Investing Without A Plan
Investing without a purpose is one of the most frequent mistakes any investor could make. Instead of considering how much risk they need to take by establishing clear financial planning goals, many investors tend to decide how much risk they are prepared to take with their money alone. Free-diving in the investment world without a plan based on mathematical expectancy is gambling rather than investing. Keep it in mind that the more planning you do before you get started, the better the chances of success. Having a written investment plan will give you some accountability and will help you track how well you’re doing in terms of meeting your objectives at the same time.
Not Diversifying
The key to any investment portfolio is diversification. To have a well-diversified portfolio, consider investing in a blend of equities, bonds, cash and alternative asset classes such as property. When you allocate your investment to different asset classes, losses from any single investment shouldn’t have too large of an impact on the value of your portfolio as a whole.
Thinking Short Term
Most investors are too focused on the short term, however, if your goal is to fund your retirement or college education for your children, investing for the short-term may not give your investments time to grow. If you have a long-term goal, ensure that your time horizon is a reasonably long period .
Making Emotion-Based Decisions
Decisions made purely by emotion can cause disaster and leave you empty-handed. Remember that if you’re looking to invest in a particular type of asset, do enough research to run the numbers before you decide to go with it.
Being Impatient
Stocks are shares in a particular business and they will take much longer to make the gains that you are hoping for or anticipating. Most of the time, investors buy shares of the stock and immediately expect the shares to act in their best interest. Bear in mind that a successful investment requires a great deal of patience so avoid constantly shifting your assets around in an effort to chase returns.
Stadden Forbes’ Investment Management provides you with bespoke investment solutions to drive returns. It is our mission to help you understand and plan your financial future by providing the right knowledge and information to help you reach decisions that are most beneficial to you. Please fill out this form or email us directly at info@nullstaddenforbes.com if you wish to become our client or for any queries about the services we offer.
