• Take interest in your financial affairs – whether you are good at it or not. Have faith, you will get better with time.
• Learn how to analyze stocks and shares but always diversify your portfolio.
• Invest in Funds that allow you to spread your money across companies in different sectors and countries. Pooling your investment has several benefits such as reduced risk, cheaper costs, professional management, and reduced paperwork.
• Investing in Funds is great but do not ignore Fund charges. Some Funds are exorbitantly expensive and even have performance and exit fees. Our annual charge is 1.1% per annum and we do not charge performance or exit fees.
• Make it a habit to always look around and compare prices when you are shopping. Similarly, make sure you understand how much your fund costs. Costs matter, so pay attention.
• Performance matters but more importantly understanding the process and investment philosophy of the Fund Manager. In the bull market, recent performance will look good and in the bear market, the performance numbers will be bad (or dreadful). Your job is to invest, regularly – not time the market.  

Avoid complications

• Borrowing to invest is always a bad idea and hugely risky.
• Using derivatives or CFDs may seem easy, but it isn’t. The perception is such geared investments entail paying only a small amount compared to the whole investment amount and betting on whether the share prices will increase or decrease. But risks are often ignored or even worse, not well understood. If the price of the share increases, you receive profits, or when the price of the share falls, you lose all your money, or sometimes if the loss is big enough, you are liable to pay more money.
• Put simply, invest in the stock market your savings and surpluses – do not borrow and put yourself under unnecessary pressure.

Take advice

Be willing to pay for good advice it always pays back many times over.

There are times to save money and there are times to spend it. If your loved one needed brain surgery would you look up Youtube videos before putting the loved one under the knife?

You wouldn’t, at least we hope so.

Similarly, do not save money when it comes to seeking good advice. Try to seek advice from an experienced qualified Financial Advisor not from a YouTube video man, who barely has his first moustache, teaching you “how to be a millionaire over the weekend.” Do not get fooled.

The first step to being wise is to stop being foolish.