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3 May 2024
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From the hundreds of responses to Firstlinks’ recent survey question, “What investment advice would you give to a 25-year-old starting an investing journey?”, we have compiled a comprehensive list of dos and don’ts for young (and perhaps not-so-young) investors.
As there are so many, we’ll present more tips next week, but for now, here are the first 100.
Leisa Bell is an Editorial Associate at Firstlinks. The investment tips provided by our survey respondents are general in nature and are not tailored to your individual financial circumstances or goals.
Thanks for the Firstlinks newsletter, which I enjoy reading. It has taught me a thing or two as well. I was reading the list of investment advice, and although this isn't quite investment advice it brought to mind one of the wisest things I have ever heard, and that is: Buy the cheapest car that your Ego will allow. You can save a lot of money that way.
DC's first comment about a budget - absolutely agree. You simply must have both a short term budget and a longer term budget. This allows you to plan & maintain maintain a positive cashflow after taking into consideration your saving for a house deposit, then mortgage, then long term savings/investments. A spreadsheet or a simple finance package that enables tracking & categorization is an essential tool.
LICS and ETFs are a path to mediocrity. Investing in Balanced AND Growth? Guess what? You’ll get the same shares in both.
agree 100% !!
Publishing all responses from the readers does not serve any meaningful purposes. Some responses were excellent. Some responses were poor. It is hard for a 25 year old to go through hundreds of tips let alone filtering which tips are truly useful. That's why we have an editor who will use his/her experience and judgement to decide which 10 to 20 tips are truly useful for a 25 year old. I want my tip to be publish too. But, if my tip is not among the selected top 20, I have to question my experience and knowledge in investing, then decide if I need further improvement myself. Publishing the poor tips is not just harmful to the 25's, it is also harmful to those readers who submit such tips, thinking that their tips were among the best.
Please editor publish as many tips as possible, all of them will likely have some application to someone, as we have differing investment styles, interests, finances. Many readers have had different experiences and we can learn from their emphasis. Anyone who just wants ‘10 best investment tips’ should stick to google.
Well done Leisa on producing a very useful list. Even if young people commenced at point 71- just start with a small amounts in all equities fund - sound advice
What is wrong with Google's 10 best investment tips if they are proven, practical and beneficial to the 25's?
One crucial tip is missing: Budgeting and ideally projecting your budget, savings, cashflow, investments and returns over a number of years - without proper budgeting and tracking of spending it is difficult to maximise the amount one can save and therefore invest. I found over 30 years of investing, budgeting and forecasting was the cornerstone to maximising savings for which I could then invest, buy a house or plan for major expenditures - I am still using the original budgeting and forecasting spreadsheet I created 30 years ago (with some tweaks of course).
Thanks for the article Leisa. Some great- and some not so great tips- but very interesting reading. ????
Some of those tips contradict themselves - best to have 10-20 tips that are different and consistent. But thanks for publishing nevertheless.
I couldn't think of a sadder existence : Get a secure full-time job. Save for a house deposit. Do night courses in carpentry and plumbing. Buy the most rundown house in a good street. Renovate the house nights and weekends for two years. Sell the house and buy another one requiring less renovation. Get a higher paying job and repeat the cycle
I suggest grouping the comments into a logical structure. That way it could become a mini guide for people wishing to learn, rather than a random list of opinions.
Number 4 - "Do night courses in carpentry and plumbing." It is illegal to do plumbing work unless you are a registered plumber - and you won't become a registered plumber by doing a night course!
No idea why you would want to publish so many tips as I suspect the sheer volume makes it almost useless. The thought of you going on and publishing yet more in batches of 100 has zero appeal to me. Much more useful I suspect would have been a list of probably no more than five key actions novice investors should seriously consider adopting at the start of their investing journey along with a suggestion as to when they might consider stepping into the drivers seat and putting their foot on the accelerator or brake if that turns out to be their wish. Oh and to accept the consequences, for better or worse, as they take more or total control.
Thanks, Peter. So we have one person (Abel) complain that we did not publish his comment (yet) and another that we should select only five from the hundreds received. Can't make everyone happy.
I think it it the third or fourth survey I have participated but have never seen my posts (this one says it is the first 100 batch though). Time to stop completing them! For everyone who reads these survey posts, there are indeed good postings but we aware that they may be a curated subset.
Thanks for participating, Abel. In previous surveys, we have published all the responses except a few that were disrespectful or self-promotional or otherwise inappropriate. In some surveys, we receive thousands of responses and once we packed them into a 75 page PDF. Maybe you missed your comment in the mass of material. While we are releasing this one in blocks of 100, we will ensure yours is included, as the vast majority will be.
How many of these people really do think long term when a crisis hits. Ask any fund manager and they will say outflows are heaviest at the bottom and inflows are highest at the top.
I think that's why its the bottom and the top !
In this second part on the reader responses with advice to younger people, we have selected a dozen highlights, but there are so many quality contributions that a full list of comments is also attached.
From a financial view, most earnings calls and stock picks are a waste of time. For most people, their investing would be better served in an index fund. So why bother with it? The best reason is because you enjoy it.
Everyone including investors needs to evolve to get better. Here are five steps to improve your investment toolkit, including thinking probabilistically, running your own race, and measuring yourself objectively.
The ATO has released all the superannuation rates and thresholds that will apply from 1 July 2024. Here's what’s changing and what’s not, and some key considerations and opportunities in the lead up to 30 June and beyond.
Life has radically shifted with my brain cancer, and I don’t know if it will ever be the same again. After decades of writing and a dozen years with Firstlinks, I still want to contribute, but exactly how and when I do that is unclear.
How useful are the retirement savings and spending targets put out by various groups such as ASFA? Not very, and it's reducing the ability of ordinary retirees to fully understand their retirement income options.
Australia will have 3.7 million more people in a decade's time, though the growth won't be evenly distributed. Over 85s will see the fastest growth, while the number of younger people will barely rise.
Investor disgust, consolidation, de-listings, price discounts, activist investors entering - it’s what typically happens at business cycle troughs, and it’s happening to LICs now. That may present a potential opportunity.
The $3 million super tax will capture retired, and soon to retire, public servants and politicians who are members of defined benefit superannuation schemes. Lobbying efforts for exemptions to the tax are intensifying.
Growth investors are using Buffett to justify buying blue chip stocks at almost any price. It’s a recipe for potential disaster, as investors in market darlings like CBA and Cochlear may be about to find out.
With Australia’s population moving through the fastest rate of growth since the 1950s, our cities and towns are naturally densifying. This is a look at the latest trends and how they will impact the property market.
We're nearing the end of the financial year and it's time for SMSFs and other super funds to make the most of the strategies available to them. Here's a 24-point checklist of the most important issues to address.
Nvidia has taken the world by storm and is now the third largest stock on the planet - larger than Meta, Amazon, and Alphabet. Here is the latest take on Nvidia from a fund manager who first invested in the company in 2016.
Despite being richer, surveyed measures of happiness have been flat to falling in Australia. Some suggest we should focus less on GDP and more on broader measures of wellbeing, though there are pros and cons to that approach.
In an era where growth companies dominate and the likes of Nvidia grab all of the attention, dividend paying stocks are flying under the radar. Some of these stocks offer compelling prospective returns.
After more than a decade of pitiful yields, bonds are back offering better prospects for income investors. What are the best ways to take advantage of the market inefficiencies in Australian fixed income?