All in Shares
You may have noticed that Sharesies now offer you access to the American share market. So now we are faced with yet another choice for our investment dollar. And don’t get me wrong, the choice is great but it can add a layer of confusion too for first-time investors. So, while Sharesies and others like them have filled a gaping hole in the market - providing easy and affordable access to the share market - they have created another void and that is the education of investors.
Do you think that now might be a good time to start investing for the first time? I think so. It’s as good a time as any and if you are new to investing, I want this to be the first blog post you read, because it’s going to save you a whole heap of heartache in the long run. And that is a promise.
I originally wrote this blog post back in December 2018 and I’ve decided it was time to make a few updates to it so that all those people reading the book for the first time and those who are following along with the Barefoot Investor principles have a good New Zealand resource to come to. If you have read my original post, while it’s still relevant, this one is quite different because it takes into account different providers of services, so I encourage you to read this one too!
We all discover some tips, tricks and shortcuts in life that are real time savers, or they just help us understand our place in the world a bit better, but it takes someone to tell us about them in the first place. I consider the Rule of 72 and Sharesight as two useful personal finance hacks, which of course I’m happy to share.
I’ve waited a long time to fill out my own Net Worth Millionaire Questionnaire! YES, our net worth has finally ticked over from 6 numbers to 7 and it’s fair to say I’m delighted. But what is the purpose of me and other people sharing this information? It’s so that you can apply it to your own situation and see the variety of ways that other Kiwi’s have created wealth for themselves and know that it is possible for you as well.
I’ve been getting a few emails and comments along the lines of “can you please consider a post about your overall investment portfolio.” My investing strategy is pretty simple and straightforward and I can't help but think that those who work day in day out in the finance space will scoff and laugh at my lack of analysis and strategy. But don’t scoff too hard, because it appears to be working just fine, thank you. Here is how I allocate the money that comes into my life.
Way back in February 2019 I created an account with Hatch, they were a very new startup at that time and many people had sent me emails asking me to look into them. They have created a simple and intuitive platform that has cut out a lot of the jargon and brokerage fees and made it pretty straight forward for you and I to invest in the biggest companies in the world.
From time to time I get emails along the lines of: Oh crikey, I think I should sell! Due to the ease with which we can now invest there are many people who are investing for the first time in their lives. They are learning how to buy, what to buy, what they like, what they don’t like. It used to be hard to invest, but that’s all changed now with the likes of SHARESIES and HATCH, the signup process is so rapid that you are signed up and have started investing before you can really comprehend what you are doing.
I’ve had my millionaire questionnaire available since July and I thought I’d look at a couple of the questions in particular and see if there are any common threads that we can draw on and I’ve read through each response and gleaned the following advice for you.
