I'm currently 18, I already have investments in a variety of conservative mutual funds through the Stash app, however I want to get into actually investing for extra income. I currently have a steady cashflow along with expenses settled. Any advice helps! I have Robinhood downloaded but haven't really tried it yet.
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1By "actually investing", do you mean "picking individual stocks"? And how conservative are your existing mutual funds?– RonJohnCommented Nov 23, 2019 at 21:55
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@RonJon Yes, I want to start investing in actual stocks to get more experience. My current ETFs/Mutual funds are as conservative as it gets seeing as I just started this with the intentions of building a better life for the future. But now I'm trying to see (while also, still trying to build a better future) if I can make a little extra money off higher risk greater rewards I dont want to jump in head first though.– Stressed4SuccessCommented Nov 23, 2019 at 22:28
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Mutual funds IS investing. One of the lessons I've learned over investing for almost 30 years is that individual stocks are usually a bad idea for investors for numerous reasons.– JohnFx ♦Commented Nov 24, 2019 at 22:37
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2 Answers
I'd highly recommend reading JL Collin's Stock Series. This is a great resource to teach you about how investing works, and gives you a primer on index funds, stock and bonds. Aditionally (and most importantly) it teaches you how to think about your money so that you don't make the bad decisions that so many people do by panic selling every time the market takes a dip. In general he recommends:
- Pay off any debts you have.
- Educate yourself so you're making the right decision. No one will care about your money as much as you do so make sure you understand what the best approach is for you.
- Invest in total US (or world) market index funds (these are some of the safest long-term investments, that have been shown to consistently out-perform actively managed funds (over the long-term). They have historically averaged 10% returns, which is hard to beat without incurring a lot of extra risk. Use a broker like Vanguard which offers a low management expense ratio (MER).
Do some reading - there’s a lot of books out there
Find your leaning - equities (long term, day trading and everything in the middle), real estate (rental, flip), small business etc... determine what matches your personality profile, some of the above, all of the above etc. Each investment vehicle has its own set of positives and negatives.
Do it. Take action.
You will make mistakes, learn from it
