5 Things You Should Do Before You Begin Investing (2024)

Are you ready to begin investing? While it's an important step in being financially secure since regularly contributing to your investment portfolio can help you build wealth, it can be daunting.

You may be afraid to invest because you do not understand the market or because you are intimidated by the initial investment options in many mutual funds. While it's always better to begin investing sooner rather than later, there are a few things you should consider before you begin building your investment portfolio.

Key Takeaways

  • Before investing, ensure you have paid off significant debt and saved up an emergency fund.
  • There are many investment options, and choosing between them is easier if you know your goals, timeline, and risk tolerance.
  • You don't know where to begin, an investment advisor or financial planner could help you establish some basic goals and build a portfolio that works toward those goals.

Are You Financially Fit?

You should check where you are from a financial standpoint. It does not make sense to invest money if you have a significant amount of debt and no emergency fund. Additionally, paying off your debt (especially credit card debt) and saving for emergencies, you will free up more of your cash for investing.

Before you begin investing, it's wise to take the time to get out of debt and establish an emergency fund. Worth noting: your emergency fund should be large enough to cover between three to six months of expenses. If your career field is unstable or you are self-employed, you should go with six months to a year of savings.

What Are You Going to Do With the Money?

You should also determine what you are planning on doing with the money that you invest. If you are planning on using it for a down payment on a house or to pay for college, your investment choices will be different than if you plan on using it for retirement.

If you are planning on using it in the next five years, you will be better off by choosing a more conservative account for your money, as opposed to if your financial goals are more long-term, in which case you can choose riskier investments.

For a short-term investment, you may consider a money market account. If you are embracing a more long-term investment strategy, you can be more aggressive with your investments and might consider mutual funds and stocks.

For retirement investments, choose a 401(k), IRA, or other retirement savings account. However, if you are planning on using your investment funds for early retirement, you will want to invest it outside of a retirement account so that you can access the funds without penalty before retirement age.

Do You Understand Your Investment Options?

If this is the first time you are investing money, it is important to realize that you will make more money with a long-term investment strategy than you will if you hope to make a quick buck by day trading or buying and selling securities quickly.

While you can make money that way, it takes a solid understanding of the stock market, a lot of time, and real talent. If this is the investing route you want to take, you may consider hiring a professional. But proceed with caution. It is easy to take a big loss.

Do You Need a Financial Planner?

Before you begin investing, you should first look for a good financial planner or advisor. Your financial planner should understand your financial goals and should offer you several options on how to achieve them. But you shouldn't blindly trust your financial advisor. Be sure you clearly understand the risks associated with each investment before you commit to it. If your financial planner is unable to explain this to you, then you should look for a new one.

If you're not happy with who you hired, you should be able to find a financial planner through your bank or via a referral. A financial planner can help you determine how much you need to save and invest to reach your goals like early retirement or paying for your children's college. He can also help you identify the best type of accounts for specific goals, like a 529 college savings account or a basic investment account if you want to retire early.

What Investment Options Are Available?

If you're just getting started, take advantage of mutual funds that have low initial investment options. These are great because it makes it easier to get started if you don't necessarily have a large amount of money to get started.

Additionally, some mutual funds allow you to set up a monthly automatic draft to help you avoid the high initial investment. However, you should carefully consider the operating costs and the average annual return over time before choosing a mutual fund. Remember that the funds will go through highs and lows,and you need to ride out the low times to make money. It is also important to also consider other ways that you can invest, including real estate investments.

Updated by Rachel Morgan Cautero.

5 Things You Should Do Before You Begin Investing (2024)

FAQs

5 Things You Should Do Before You Begin Investing? ›

This sort of five percent rule is a yardstick to help investors with diversification and risk management. Using this strategy, no more than 1/20th of an investor's portfolio would be tied to any single security. This protects against material losses should that single company perform poorly or become insolvent.

What is the 5 rule of investing? ›

This sort of five percent rule is a yardstick to help investors with diversification and risk management. Using this strategy, no more than 1/20th of an investor's portfolio would be tied to any single security. This protects against material losses should that single company perform poorly or become insolvent.

What is the 4 rule in investing? ›

The 4% rule limits annual withdrawals from your retirement accounts to 4% of the total balance in your first year of retirement. That means if you retire with $1 million saved, you'd take out $40,000. According to the rule, this amount is safe enough that you won't risk running out of money during a 30-year retirement.

What do investors need to know before investing? ›

Investors want to know the size of the overall market and the total number of potential clients. The investor would hesitate to invest if the planned market size is insufficient since they might not receive sufficient profits. It must be remembered that the company should be sustained over the long term.

What is the 1 rule of investing? ›

Warren Buffett once said, “The first rule of an investment is don't lose [money].

What is the number 1 rule investing? ›

Rule No.

1 is never lose money. Rule No. 2 is never forget Rule No.

What is the 1 investor rule? ›

Key Takeaways: The rent charged should be equal to or greater than the investor's mortgage payment to ensure that they at least break even on the property. Multiply the purchase price of the property plus any necessary repairs by 1% to determine a base level of monthly rent.

What is the 10 rule in stocks? ›

A: If you're buying individual stocks — and don't know about the 10% rule — you're asking for trouble. It's the one rough adage investors who survive bear markets know about. The rule is very simple. If you own an individual stock that falls 10% or more from what you paid, you sell.

What is the 10 rule in investing? ›

However, a 10 percent fall in the monthly value of investments is considered a signal to sell and liquidate the portfolio fully, and sometimes partially.

What is the rule of 10 in investing? ›

Buy At Least 10 Percent Under Market Price

The second piece of the 10 percent rule is to avoid purchasing anything that's priced more than 10 percent under market value.

What are the 4 stages of decision? ›

Figure 2 describes decision making as a four-stage process: intelligence, design, choice and implementation.

What are the steps to start investing in stocks? ›

To invest in stocks, open an online brokerage account, add money to the account, and purchase stocks or stock-based funds from there. You can also invest in stocks through a robo-advisor or a financial advisor.

What is the first step of the investment process? ›

Step 1 - Establishing Investment Goals and Objectives

Understanding the role that your investments play in your current and future cash flow, and where you are in the 'accumulation-income generation-preservation-distribution' cycle is essential to matching your investment goals to your investment portfolio.

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