Personal Finance & Financial Independence
3(ish) Articles, Curated Daily
I mentioned yesterday that my biggest financial mistake was failing to invest aggressively enough early in my career. I graduated in 2006 and spent my first few years working to dig myself out of student loans and small amount of credit card debt. By the time I was in a position to get serious about investing, the Great Recession was in full swing and markets were crashing.
Waiting out the crash seemed like a smart move, of course, I realize now that was the wrong move. By failing to invest, I missed the chance to buy at lower prices and lost out on the potential gains of the 10 year long bull market. The stock market has largely recovered from its COVID-19 plunge, but the future remains uncertain. So, how do you invest in the face of a potential market collapse?
Investing just as the stock market starts to crash might not be as bad as you think. Find out how your investments would perform during a bear market.
Ok, so we know we need to start investing. But where to do we get started? My answer will always be low cost index funds. But what makes them the ideal starting point and more importantly, how do you get started?
Index investing is a great strategy for beginners, and honestly for “experts” too. It’s simple and low-cost, and oftentimes outperforms some of the best money managers.
Keeping with yesterday’s theme of learning from our mistakes, here’s what happened when one investor found an investment strategy that turned out to be too good to be true:
