Hi everyone. My name is Kevin. I feel so naive about shares. I made my first share purchase about 2 weeks ago. Despite those shares falling after my purchase, I am sure that I made the correct decision in the long term.
I regret not learning about investing in my twenties during '90s. Made lots of mistakes with money and suffered unemployment for a while. I am struggling to find time to read about investing. Maybe this is why I joined this forum.
Unlike many people in this forum, I earn very little but I have saved a little for investing. I have roughly $25,000 to invest. It took me a long time to save this. I still some 'emergency cash' which I will not use for investing. I am looking at a few promising shares but everything seems too expensive. I regret not doing this last year but I was dealing with personal issues back then. Thank you in advance for saying hello.
Welcome to ASF, I wish you the greatest of success in the future, both personally & financially.
Just a couple of points, if I may.
1. Feelings of naietity when considering your first stock purchases are a natural emotion to have, this feeling may linger for a few years yet. Trading/investing in stocks is a continual process of learning whether you have been doing it for 5 years or 50.
2. If you have any other outstanding debt, retire that with the $25k first before you even consider inbvesting.
3. It is important that you find/make the time to read about investing and how you would like to approach the situation. There is an old saying "If you complete just 1 hours research on a particular stock, you will know more about it than 99% of the people invested in it at any given time".
4. One of the best things you can do is take all preconceived notions that most posters on stock forums either;
- Earn a lot
- Have a lot saved up to invest
- Are successful traders/investers
Don't ever forget that in the most part you are dealing with anonymous individuals here. Over time, you will learn who are the regulars/highly experienced/helpful/rude/BS artists/genuine/rampers/fake etc etc
ASF is generally an excellent community to be a part of, you have chosen wisely to join this one.
5. Congratulations on the $25K that you have saved, it sounds like it has taken you a while to accrue this money. Invest it in the same way that you have accumulated it ----> CAREFULLY
6. Ask questions. That is what ASF is here for. If you are considering an individual stock for purchase, look it up on this forum and read the thread from start to finish to gather as much information as possible. Cross reference what has been said with a price chart to see if the comments line up with share price activity. This will give you a good insight into how stock commentary can be posted with truthfulness & the intention to inform/assist others, conversely it can also show you how desperate people losing a great deal of money will say anything & everything to attempt to entice others to buy a particular stock that they own, aka ramping.
7. Take your time. Learn, learn, learn & then learn some more. As long as you are working on formulating a plan that preserves your hard earned capital whilst researching some carefully selected stocks - you will not wake up tomorrow wondering where your $25k went.
8. The stock market will be here tomorrow, next week & next year. You are not missing out on anything that won't replicate itself in another stock at some stage into the future. You just need to learn to await & recognise that opportunity when it represents itself down the track.
If I may ask, do you have a figure and/or timeframe in mind of what value you would like your $25k to be?