Whilst this blog is primarily a health and fitness blog (hence the Move and Eat parts of the domain name), there is another part which encompasses Love – love for the things I do, the people in my life as well as some other things I love which happen to largely include Travel and Personal Finance.
With an accounting degree it is relatively easy to see the link between me and personal finance, adding to that my father has always been in to finance and shares which is where my love for personal finance stems from.
Whilst I personally own shares – my 18th birthday present was the start of a share portfolio. This would probably seem strange to most 18 year olds, however having read a number of Robert Kiyosaki’s books I understood the power of having your money work for you rather than the other way around. I think this was the BEST present ever and I have continued to invest a small amount each week which as we all know adds up quickly over time.
I came across this article (a love letter to millennial’s from the stock market) while reading another article (got to love the popular posts feature on the side bar of some blogs). The title alone made me think it would be well worth the few minutes it would take to read and I was right.
There is a lot of truth in this article and while I can see why people think that shares are risky, I don’t understand why they automatically think they should invest in real estate as they don’t see that as risky.
The thing is if you are looking to invest long term you will (generally) ride out the ups and downs of the stock market. The article said ‘because the secret is: I’m a cyclical beast.’ A truer word could not have been spoken, that is the nature the stock market, it also goes for the property market and any other kind of market. There will always be the ups and downs, the secret is to buy during the downs and sell during the highs and not freak out and get out while things are at a low, which is generally your instinct.
I think the key to any kind of financial security lies in making a start, whatever it is you decide to do. Just make a start, even if it’s $20 a week that’s just over $1000 a year which is better than nothing. And you’ll find that after a few pays you will get used to the money not being there (set up an automatic payment so the funds leaves your account as soon as you get paid, or better yet have a pay split so it never even touches your transactions account) and a few years down the line you will be glad you started when you did.
Another tip I have is to increase the amount you are putting away (into savings or some type of investment) every time you receive a pay rise or a decent sum of money (maybe you received a tax refund or something), it doesn’t need to be the whole amount but an extra $10 a week or $200 from your tax refund will add up over the years once you start adding interest or dividends (or the benefit of reducing a mortgage payment and saving on interest if you head the property route) will well outweigh whatever you would have spent the money on otherwise.
Do you invest in anything? Do you have regular savings?
I just discovered you wrote an article based on my piece. I’m flattered and appreciate it! If you’re interested in updating this, the current link in your post is broke and can be redirected to:
Thanks for stopping by, I’ve updated the post now 🙂