Investing is a three-syllable, nine-letter word, but it can often feel like a much bigger word than that. There’s so much weight – and dare I say, baggage – to the word investing. To the outsider, investing can seem like a daunting task that only the ones with years of experience, or boatloads of cash, can make the most of.
But the truth is, investing is one of the simplest and easiest things a person can do for themselves and their financial future. And it doesn’t take a genius, nor an incredibly fat bank account to get started. All you need to do to begin your investing journey is to just go for it, and that can only happen when you first unlearn all the myths you were taught about investing and why you shouldn’t do it.
In this blog, I’m going to help you dispel these myths, and give you four common investment misconceptions that you need to start forgetting so you can start earning:
1. Investment is for the rich
Now look, of course investing is easier when you’re rich. When you have a lot of capital, you don’t need to worry about emergency savings or living paycheck to paycheck. That’s absolutely true. But is it only for the rich, and is it impossible for a normal, working class person to start investing? The answer to both of these questions is a resounding no.
Investing doesn’t take that much money to do. All it takes is the self-control to put a little bit of your earnings into an investment, and the patience to water it and see it grow. See, even if you earn a lot of money, if you can’t control yourself and put it into liabilities instead of investments, or if you’re impatient and refuse to meet your investment’s time horizons, the starting capital doesn’t matter. Patience and perseverance always win out in the end, regardless of how much you make.
Breaking this myth – that investing is only for the rich – is the first step to dispelling all other investment myths that are stopping you from gaining the wealth you deserve. Because when you break this myth of the rich being the only ones capable of investing, you immediately realise that you can, regardless of your wealth. And when you realise that, there’s nothing stopping you from making good investments.
2. Investing in stocks is the only option
A quick Google of “how to invest” will immediately autosuggest “in the stock market” as an add-on to that question. I don’t blame Google, of course, since that is, in fact, most people’s understanding of investing. To the general populace, investing is basically a synonym for dipping your toes in the stock market and trying to figure out its ebbs and flows.
But that perception of investing is an incredibly narrow one, and believing that investing only means trading stocks limits your ability to earn and invest in other, worthwhile things. Because investing isn’t about stocks necessarily, it’s just about putting your money into something you can compound and watch grow.
Now while investing can be done in infinitely many ways from real estate to startups, there are two ways in particular that I recommend to anyone – Forex trading and crypto. I vouch for these investments because of how robust they can be, and how the returns have proven to be lucrative. I also don’t think we’re even close to reaching the potential that trading Forex or crypto can give.
But whatever it is, whether it’s stocks, Forex, crypto, real estate, or startups, just know that there’s more than just one way to invest. And if you start looking into them, maybe you’ll find the investment perfect for you.
3. It takes too much time to invest
First of all, I want to point out that anything you do takes time, especially things that are worthwhile. Want to learn a new language? Takes time. Want to get a degree or take an online course? Takes time. Literally everything you do that you benefit from needs time to grow and develop. So really, it shouldn’t make a difference if investing does take time. But luckily, it actually doesn’t.
The amount of time you spend on investing is overblown. For most people, the most time consumed in investing is simply learning the basics of financial literacy. But that doesn’t take too much time either, and once it’s done, that’s pretty much the only time you’ll really spend on it. Because contrary to popular belief, investing doesn’t need to be a full-time job watching stocks go up and down. There are many different ways to invest – from time deposits, to long-term investments, many of which don’t need all that much thought except to let the investment grow and compound it every so often.
So no, you don’t need to spend that much time on your investments. And hey, even if you did, I’d still say it’s worth it, just like all good things that need time to grow are.
4. You need to be an expert
This myth is the one that always personally bothers me. Like, come on, do you need to be Stephen Curry to have fun playing basketball? Or Stephen Hawking to be fascinated by astronomy? I suppose Stephen King is the only one who can enjoy horror books, huh? The idea that you have to be an expert in a field to enter it or reap its benefits is incredibly silly, and the same is true for investing.
No, you don’t need to know everything there is to know about investing to get started. The gates are open for you to start investing so long as you yourself want to do it. And if you keep thinking too much about how to succeed in it or what kind of convoluted strategy you need to employ, you’re only distracting yourself from getting started on investing and using simple financial literacy to earn you the passive income you deserve.
And besides, if you really want to level up your investing, there are so many financial experts out there willing to help you. In Fullerton Markets, for example, we provide trusted trading experts of various asset classes, who are all on call to help you maximise your profits. So, if you really do want to learn and develop complex strategies, you absolutely can with the right mentors and coaches.
All in all, it’s myths like these that stop people from making the most out of their lives and the wealth they could be growing. So, stop making excuses and understand that these myths are just that – urban legends that prevent you from the satisfying life of financial freedom.
To your success,
Mario
[Visit www.mariosingh.com now to enjoy a FREE e-book of my latest “37 Essential Principles for Massive Success” when you subscribe!]
