A Newbie's Guide to Investing

Let’s say you think you’re done with work. You've saved up a little, started a business, but want to vary your investments. Let me tell you one thing straight: share buying is not for the faint hearted, or the flippant. 

It doesn’t matter if your dad is a veteran at investing, if you’re a finance major in college, or if you just realized you had extra money and you want to dip your toes into it. Here are the crucial things that you seriously need to know about investing your money in stocks, here are our best investment tips for you:

First off, you must fully know how much you’re about to spend for your investment. Don’t worry, you won’t really need to have a specific amount for this. In fact, you can just give yourself a bracket so that you are more aware of how much you can stretch/spend for a really good investment.

After that, consult an expert and calculate if your portfolio can give you enough dividends/ income to last you a lifetime. Also, remember to use very conservative market assumptions here. Minimize your risk and be realistic.

Speaking of risks, determine the risk quotient. The keyword here is determine. Do not guess, but determine. Most of the time, several investments may strike you as a one-off deal, with an awesome return and a very well written corporate profile. However, if it takes a high risk quotient just to get your projected income, it may not be the best investment for you.

And yes, speaking of one-off deals, remember, in the end, that your investment is like marriage---it must be for life. Do not invest on products or services that strike you as just fads. So something did well on the papers recently? Don’t get too carried away.

Lastly, learn the jargon. Sometimes, they might look intimidating to your or you might feel a little bit more proud once you realize that you’ve mastered investing language, but really, you need it. Just remember not to show off, okay? Your amazing investments’ dividends might just be able to pay for the jewelry your newest prettiest gold digger wants for Christmas.

Thoughts about investing? 

Did You Just Fall Out of Love With Your Business?

It's the Christmas season again, and love and festivity is just all around us. Symbols of love are everywhere—the color red, Christmas trees, Santa, gifts, et cetera. What also caught my attention was the  massive business going on. Lantern stores sprout on busy sidewalks, beggars are now singing carols, and the price of fruits and flowers slightly shot up.

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I had no problem with any of those. However, as I contemplated on the business part and on all the love brewing around, I suddenly thought: what if you fall out of love for your business? What if you just lost it? What do you do to fall back in love again?

See, perhaps the best job in the world is to be one’s own boss. And even though it’s not that easy or as loose as it sounds, many people still jump into the bandwagon and try to come up with their very own gigs. At first you like being the king of your time and being able to have the say on everything; however, when the realities of business ownership and management settle in, it’s also easy to just lose the zest for your business.

Imagine, you have to worry about financial management, employee relationship, sales and most of the time, you even get to work on weekends as well. When your to-do list starts to lengthen more than usual, there will be times when all you want to do is shut yourself out and sleep all day.

If you need help falling back in love with your business, here are a few time tested tips:

The first thing that you need to do is to set your mindset right back on track. Ask yourself why you are doing what you do and what your business stands for. Or, if you want to amp up the purpose of your business, ask yourself, “what is the most important aspect of my job?”. Whether it’s giving jobs or providing above satisfactory services, you need to remind yourself what your purpose is. Take time to pause for a while and reflect on what we are there for. Usually it’s the daily drill that just gets into us, and reflecting on our purpose re-energizes us back into taking those drills more seriously and purposefully.

Now, if you think that it’s the huge mound of tasks getting into you, start delegating some of the little ones to a trustworthy delegate. Pass some important-but-easy-and-time-consuming tasks like website maintenance, social media marketing and calendar scheduling off to an assistant. This will give you more energy and time to focus on the more important aspects of your business or future projects.

Lastly, don’t forget to take some time off. Take a quick vacation (one weekend will do) to inspire yourself and perhaps generate fresh ideas and more innovative perspectives. Indulge your employees to these kinds of mini vacations once in a while as well.

See, it’s not very difficult, isn’t it? You just have to start with the right mindset and work from there. And for a while, take your time off the numbers (sales, debts, etc.) and work on the heart of your business—the purpose. Once you get it right from there, the numbers will eventually concede.

Need more help with business revamping or mindset recharging? Drop me a line at the comment box or email Your New PR Girl at karlastefansingson@gmail.com.