Invest in These Skills Before You Invest
in Equities, Debt & Crypto
See also: Investment Tips
With Cryptocurrency and other forms of money making becoming available and accessible for anyone who has a computer, you might want to hop online and see what investing in Bitcoin, other cryptocurrencies, or NFTs (non-fungible tokens) is all about.
However, there is a steep learning curve when it comes to investing money, and if you go into the world of crypto without knowing a few common skills, you will probably lose some of your money.
Instead of floundering and learning as you go, you need to know about all these skills. Only then can you figure out what good investments and good opportunities look like, all while staying away from the ones that are scams.
Here are some of the skills you need to know before you make your first investment.
Learn To Budget
It can be shocking to see the number of people who know nothing about budgeting, and that can cause a lot of problems whenever you start investing.
You might be tempted to pull a lot of money from your savings or from other areas of your life in order to seize a hot investment, and while it might work out… it also might not. Instead of staking everything on some ‘do or die’ investments, you need to make sure that you can budget your money.
Have a specific portion of your income that goes solely to investing and then invest until that income is gone. If your investments pay off, then you can make some more with the money you got back, but if they don’t you still have enough money to pay all the other bills in your life.
Learn About Debt
One of the biggest pitfalls people make about investing is (ironically) one of the same pitfalls that gets people in trouble when gambling. They don’t know how debt works. Just like how you should always attempt to break even when you gamble and never bet more than you can comfortably lose, you need to do the same thing with investing.
While it can be easy to see a surefire opportunity and start throwing some money at it to make money, you need to keep yourself calm. Even experienced investors will look for patterns and make sure they aren’t filling a money pit. This is because if you aren’t careful you can lose a lot of money and get yourself into debt, and more investments won’t get you out of it.
Understand How the Economy Works
Before you can do a deep dive into how crypto affects the world’s economy, you need to learn about the state of the world’s economy first. If the economy is bad or inflation is up or the GDP is good, well, all of these affect how crypto works and how investments can help you make money.
So, you need to learn what all of those things mean and what they do to prices. If inflation is high and the economy is in a recession, you might know that prices are high… but why are they so high?
Taking some economy courses or finding a good resource that will break everything down can be very helpful, and pretty soon you will be an armchair economist! Then you can use your knowledge of the economy and figure out why things are happening, and how your investments can take advantage of the current situation.
Learn About Crypto Itself and How You Can Use It
Cryptocurrency is becoming more and more mainstream every single day, but there’s still a lot that you need to learn about it before you can invest. Thankfully, there are a lot of resources you can use to learn about what Bitcoin is, what cryptocurrency is, and how blockchains work. Look on the internet and see what you can find.
It can be very confusing and a bit off putting, but if you can know how what you are investing in works, you can recognize patterns and keywords. Then you can make better investments and make some money on beginner websites. For example, SoFi is a great place to start investing money.
You need to find a good beginner website, so do some research and read some reviews. There are plenty of websites that act like beginner investing websites, only to take your money and run once you’ve made your first investment. Good websites teach you what you need to know and walk you through what an investment looks like.
Sites such as Sofi allow you to invest from only $5, working with crypto, IPOs, stocks, and EFTs. Such sites are a perfect application for beginners, and everything is all in one place. You can start funding your Roth IRA and make automated investments straight from an app, with information and support every step of the way so you can make little investments and reap very big rewards.
For any investment, it is important to know what you are investing in. If you are investing for a stock in a company, spend some time to see what the company is about. You can see what the company’s financial history is as well as what their stocks look like all on the internet, so take a look.
You Will Always Learn with Investments
Finally, don’t think that learning these skills will be the end. Investments might have been around a long time, but cryptocurrency is only going to get bigger as new coins are introduced and the rules around it change. You will always keep learning as you make investments, whether it is from the internet, or from your own mistakes and successes in the field.
In this journey of continuous learning, one invaluable tool to consider is maintaining one of the best trading journals. Trading journals are crucial for tracking your decisions, successes, and areas for improvement, allowing you to analyze patterns in your investment strategy and adjust accordingly. They serve as a personal ledger and a reflection tool, enabling you to identify what strategies work best and which ones need refinement.
Still, every single time you learn you will get a lesson out of it, and after a while you will be able to see the patterns in the economy and the hidden opportunities that will allow you to make a return on your investments. So don’t be afraid to learn, invest, and watch both your crypto and your real wallet grow as your hard work pays off!
About the Author
Cristina Par is a content specialist with a passion for writing articles that bridge the gap between brands and their audiences. She believes that high-quality content plus the right link building strategies can turn the tables for businesses small and large.