Are you ready to build wealth and secure a more prosperous future?
If so, you want to start planning how to earn money and researching investment strategies to grow your nest egg. You want to start investing today so that you can afford more time later.
So how do you start investing? What are the best methods of investing for beginners? We’ve prepared this detailed investment guide to help you get started with creating wealth.
Make sure you always seek professional financial advice and only make decisions that you’re comfortable with!
Table of Contents
Here’s what you need to know:
Read Books
You might not have expected this from an investment guide. But there isn’t a wealthy person on earth who doesn’t have an exceptional library.
There are two types of books that you need to add to your bookshelf. The first type includes books on investing and building wealth. The second type includes books to help you develop mental toughness.
The first type of book will show you how money gets made. The second type of book helps you build discipline and handle the stress that comes with managing money.
Whenever you go to a library or bookshop, make sure you buy at least two books from each category.
For example, you might want to buy a copy of The Richest Man in Babylon to understand wealth creation. Then, you can buy Meditations by Marcus Aurelius to develop a stoic mindset.
Any wealthy person has enough humility to know that they don’t know everything. They understand that they must keep learning about wealth creation and building mental toughness.
Keep reading and work on building your library. Before you start investing, you have to start learning.
Know Your History
Once again, you might be thinking: hey, where’s the financial advice? But every wealthy person is fascinated by history. You’ve heard the warnings that anyone ignorant of history will be doomed to repeat it.
As cliched as this might be, it’s entirely true. A huge part of history has dealt with how wealth was viewed in society.
In the past century, we’ve seen societies lose their wealth as they transitioned from a free-market economy to a communist society.
Likewise, there have been formerly communist countries that are now bastions of economic freedom!
So why does this matter to you? It’s because you need to be in a society that values wealth if you want to build it.
This isn’t just true for people who are already wealthy, but also beginners like you who are beginning their investing journey.
Is the culture of your country one that values wealth? If it does, it’ll likely be easy to start a business. Taxation is low and there are few taxes. There isn’t a growing animosity toward wealthy individuals.
If so, your country is a great place to be for building wealth. But what if your country’s culture is hostile toward wealth? What if taxation on income, wealth, investments, etc. are among the highest in the world?
You’re likely in the wrong country for building wealth. You might want to consider relocating elsewhere in the world.
If your country has been wealthy for centuries, it’s likely on a downward slope. If you’re in a developing country, you want to see if your country is heading in the right direction for building wealth.
Understand How Money Works
In the 1970s, the United States Dollar — which had already become the reserve currency, was taken off the gold standard.
But what exactly does this mean? If you ask the average person why this matters they won’t be able to give you an answer. They won’t understand the consequences of this drastic move.
Gold has a finite amount. It means that it has a specific value because of its scarcity. The U.S. Dollar and all other currencies were once backed by gold — which is what gave them value.
Today, the world’s currencies are based on fiat. A fiat currency is considered legal tender simply because the country’s government and central bank state that it is.
But the issue with fiat currencies is that they can get printed at a whim. Or the money supply can increase by making changes on a computer. This greatly decreases the value of money. This entire process is known as inflation.
This means that your money might have value today but not within a few years. It means that you could be considered rich today and middle class in a decade! It means that the purchasing power of your money will decrease over time.
So what does this mean for the investor? It means that you need to focus on building your cash flow. Unless we go back to a gold standard, your savings will not last you for the remainder of your life.
You can’t build wealth once and then take a break for the rest of your life. You have to find a way to continue increasing your net worth to keep up with inflation rates.
With this established, we can now move into the investment strategies you should consider.
Precious Metals
While your fiat currency might not get tied to gold, this doesn’t mean that you can’t own gold.
Precious metals are an insurance policy to protect against inflation. You can also use them as an asset to sell for fiat currency.
The two main precious metals you should focus on are gold and silver bullion.
There’s no set amount of precious metals you should own. Some investors might suggest having 10% of your net worth in gold. Others will recommend having your “age in gold” and your “weight, in pounds, in silver.”
Whatever you choose, it’s always wise to stack gold and silver. Find an online retailer or local coin shop to buy bullion. You can choose to buy gold and silver rounds. Or you can buy gold and silver bars if you want to increase the weighted amount faster.
You can also use your jewelry as an alternative to bullion. You can buy gold and silver jewelry that can work as investments. Make sure they are over 18K to fulfill this requirement.
Cryptocurrency
The next step is to consider accumulating Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
Cryptocurrency has offered an alternative to fiat currencies. What makes them different from the fiat system is that there is a finite amount to each cryptocurrency.
There can only ever be a maximum of 21 Million Bitcoins. As such, it cannot lose value through the method of inflation. Alternatively, you can use cryptocurrency as an asset to exchange for fiat currency. You can also use it as an asset to purchase other valuable assets.
You can use services such as this Bitcoin machine to convert Bitcoin to fiat and vice-versa.
If you do invest in crypto, you want to learn how blockchain technology works first.
You’ll need to understand how to protect your cryptocurrency from others. The best way is to invest in a hardware wallet as opposed to using a web exchange.
You also want to study the regulations regarding cryptocurrency in your jurisdiction.
In some jurisdictions, cryptocurrencies are entirely illegal to own. In others, they can be owned but not used as a legitimate currency. In others, they are heavily taxed.
Make sure you learn these rules before accumulating any cryptocurrency. You also want to do your research on what cryptocurrencies to invest in apart from Bitcoin — if any!
Digital Earnings
Whether you wish to work online or not, you have to find a way to earn an income online.
The COVID-19 pandemic made many people lose their only source of income due to the worldwide lockdowns. Many people had to find a way to work online to recover their income.
The remote work phenomenon has been going on for several years. But the recent events made it more mainstream. You have to find a way of earning an income without needing to depend on being present in an office.
For example, you can be in a poor country with a weak currency. But you can work online for a company based in a richer country with a stronger currency. You can earn a first-world salary without having to emigrate!
As an investor, you want to own digital assets. This can mean owning rights to digital products from which you can earn royalties. Examples of digital products can include:
- eBooks
- Audiobooks
- YouTube videos that earn ad revenue
- Videos to sell on-demand
- Online courses
- Apps
You want to distinguish digital assets from digital work. As an investor, you don’t want to depend on working online to earn digital income.
For example, let’s suppose you ghostwrite eBooks for others. If you want to earn a regular income, you want to request a royalty share for writing these eBooks rather than a fixed salary.
An alternative is to publish your own eBooks! This requires you to do the work once and then earn income regularly once you’ve published it online. The main difference with digital investing is focusing on selling and minimize creating as much as possible.
Stock Market
Stock market investing has always been a favorite choice both for beginner and veteran investors.
Investing in the stock market lets you own shares in a company and build your wealth in the long run. Imagine if you had bought 100 shares of Apple in 1980 when it went public. Today, you’d amass lots of wealth if you sold those shares!
But you don’t always have to wait decades to earn money from the stock market. You can also invest in stocks that offer dividends. These are cash earnings that you’ll get each quarter from any company that you own shares of.
Stock market investing has become much easier for beginners as you no longer need a broker or a huge pile of savings.
You can use investment apps to buy smaller shares or fractional shares of a company. Some investment apps charge low fees while some don’t charge any!
Make sure you take the time to research companies before investing in them. As a beginner investor, you might get tempted to put your money in large index funds or large corporations. But you might find you’ll make better choices investing in smaller companies.
Never invest in a company or an industry that you aren’t familiar with. So if you don’t follow tech, you shouldn’t invest in Apple just because of its success. If you don’t understand firearms, don’t invest in Ruger just because they offer dividends!
A smart stock market investor will always research the company and the industry first. Afterward, you’ll have to study the trends of each company and industry to see if it’s worth your investment.
Set Aside Savings
Wait, I thought you said savings are useless because of inflation?!
Yes, you shouldn’t depend on your savings to build your wealth. However, as a beginner investor, you’ll likely make investments on a sporadic basis. It’ll also take time for you to accumulate lots of precious metals and crypto.
It’s also likely that it’ll take time for you to create a consistent cash flow from digital earnings or the stock market.
So you should also open a savings account and keep your investment income in this account. The funds in this savings account should only get used for making investments.
You can also put some of your wealth from your investments in this savings account. As a beginner investor, you might want to create this account by putting aside a portion of your income before making any investments.
Share This Investment Guide
Now that you’re reached the end of our investment guide, it’s time to put these ideas into action.
Once again, you should always seek professional financial advice before making any investment. Use this guide as a general guideline on how to begin your investment journey.
You should also only focus on making investments that you understand. Take the time to research investments before spending your money.
Please share this guide with others who wish to start investing. You can also find more great financial guides on our website!
