Easy steps to start investing in the stock market

This week I tweeted about my regret in not investing earlier in life. I always thought I was in the minority who hasn't been investing at my age. To my surprise, I found out many others in similar age was in a similar position.

Here I wanted to extend the subject as I received numerous questions about this tweet. I will keep it short and sweet.

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This is not financial advice. Please do your own research, I'm just sharing how I have been investing.

I have read numerous articles and many finance/investment related books, they all give very similar advice.

Invest in long term

I'm not the type of person to follow the stock market daily and try to time the market. I just want to put some money in investment and forget about it while it is growing itself on aside. For this scenario, Index Funds have been a lifesaver.

80% of my investment goes to long term Index Funds. I use Vanguard ISA account for Index Funds, it is trustworthy and has low fees. I did set up an £X of monthly direct debit payment from my bank to Vanguard and Vanguard to purchase Y% of each index fund monthly. It is all automated.

So far, I have made %40+ return in Index funds.

Diversify

When it comes to where to invest, diversification becomes key. Yes, I have my favourite Funds, however, I try to keep a good balance between logic and emotion. I invest in ~15 Funds with different weights at the moment. Big majority is for S&P 500 (duh!), I also have some FTSE 100, Japan Stock Index, Target Retirement, Global Small Cap Index Fund, ...

Make your own research and diversify your money. So if one market does bad, another one will make it up.

Individual Stocks

OK, let's be honest, Index funds are boring :D in this case, boring is good though!

So for the remaining 20% of my money, I invest in Individual Stocks and Crypto. Currently, I'm using eToro for both, there are many other low fee alternatives for the Stock market. I purchase stocks from the companies I know and believe in such as Apple, Amazon, Tesla, etc.

Stock market with Crypto is very volatile, looking at today, I have made ~%70 return

Timing the Market

You may have heard this phrase, people keep waiting for the market price to go down to buy. In an ideal world, it makes sense, however, we are living in a real and unpredictable world. Regardless market going up or down, you lose opportunity by waiting. I invest regularly without timing. If you look at it in the long term, your money grows despite all the volatilities. I don't sell when the market goes down and people panic sells, I see these times as great opportunities to buy even more.

I can write pages of advice for this subject, even a book :D Maybe I should : P

I will write follow up articles. For now, if you want to start investing:

1. Open Vanguard ISA (up to £20k tax-free for UK) account.
2. Transfer whatever you can afford from your personal bank account to Vanguard. £100, £1000, ...
3. Buy some Index Fund, S&P 500 is the most common one, it is even taken as a benchmark.
4. Congrats, you have invested now : )
5. Then, keep doing your research and expand your portfolio with more funds and stocks.

Remember; Invest in the long term, Diversify, Don't stress to time the market, Stay calm ... 

It is not that complicated.