Are you outside the stock market despite wanting to be in it?
Maybe you’re suffering from the very common disease called “bad excuses.”
Read this list of the five most common bad excuses and find out how to cure them.
Excuses grow like weeds in your mind, and you need to pull them out so they don’t strangle your budding courage.
It’s about pulling them up by the root as soon as you spot them.
How do you do that?
Bad excuses are just phrases and stories that we tell ourselves, so the easiest thing is to tell yourself a new story.
Here are five of the most common excuses – and the way to get over them:
1. “I can’t figure it out.”
Repeat after me: “I can do it.”
Another phrase you can say is, “I’ve never tried that before, so I can probably do it.” That’s a Pippi Longstocking quote, by the way.
This excuse is very common among women.
I hope that by being public about my story, I can give other women courage to invest.
The good news is, you don’t have to be the strongest girl in the world like Pippi or possess any other superpowers or supernatural abilities. You don’t even need a particularly high IQ. And you definitely don’t have to be a man. The stock market doesn’t care about sex, color, race, IQ, or whether you have children or not.
This is really good news, because there is a level playing field.
You need a calm approach and a dose of patience to make it work for you.
Just remember, there are a lot of people who want investing to look complicated because they have an interest in you believing it’s difficult.
The entire financial sector would like to sell you their products.
When you think it is difficult and complicated, it’s easier for them to sell you some expensive products.
2. “I’m too old / it’s too late.”
Instead, tell yourself: “I have the right age and experience to start investing.”
It’s never too late. Never.
There was a German lady who started investing in stocks at an advanced age (after she turned 60). She became rich by value investing, and she also became famous (in Germany) for her strategy when she was in her 70s. You can try searching for her. Her name is Beate Sander, and she is referred to as “Börsenexpertin” and “Millionärin.”
And by the way, Warren Buffett and his partner Charlie Munger are both over 90, and they’re still very active investors.
3: “I’m too young and too inexperienced.”
Say: “This is the best time for me to start investing. I’ll learn and grow.”
I invest my 5- and 8-year-old boys’ savings. I tell them what they own so that they can learn from it. They’re already learning little by little about value investing.
If you’re reading this blog, you are definitely older than my kids.
I always get so excited when very young people contact me. I think about how much their money can grow. If you’re young, you can really take advantage of the effect of compounding.
Even a little bit of savings can turn into a fortune if you have the time and patience.
The excuse of being too young is probably also related to the perception that you first have to spend all your money on studies, homes, weddings, and future children before you invest.
But this is not an either-or decision. You can invest 100 dollars a month as your life develops and you study, get married, and have children. No, I’m not going to mention any cafe lattes. You can have your coffee. You’ll figure out where you want to save – or grow your income.
4: “I don’t know which platform I should use.”
Repeat after me: “Money loves speed, and I make quick decisions about small things.”
Just pick a platform.
You can open accounts and deposits in as many banks as you want, and it’s not like you’re forced to pick only one and stick with that.
Why not just start with your own bank and get some investing experience there? You can always open another account somewhere else.
In the vast majority of cases, the fees will not mean much because as a value investor you don’t trade that often.
Each platform has introductory videos that can get you started, but to be completely honest, I’ve never watched any of them myself. Most platforms are as intuitive as online banking.
If you are afraid of pressing the wrong button and losing a lot of money in a mysterious black hole on the platform, start with a small amount and give it a try. You’ll be more comfortable with the experience.
5: “It’s too risky.”
Repeat after me: “I seek knowledge and invest with a solid strategy.”
The truth is that you learn and build knowledge, and that makes it less risky.
It’s only risky to invest if you don’t learn along the way how to select companies or funds, or if you don’t do some basic research about what you’re buying stocks in.
Unfortunately, most private investors pick stocks at random.
Many beginners buy shares in a company because they heard it mentioned in a podcast or because someone brought it up at a dinner party. Dude, that’s not research.
But not you, because you read this blog post every week (right?).
You’re already smarter than most private investors out there.
Obviously, you’ll research before investing, and you know what to look for because you’ve read my e-book Free Yourself, which you can download right here.
