Investing simply means setting aside money to buy company stock at a cheaper price and hope It grows over time and you sell it for a profit when the stock price has gone up – higher than the price you bought it.
As a beginner, the first thing you’d want to do is to set-asides money for your investment (daily, weekly, monthly), it doesn’t matter how little it is, with time compounding your savings would help in the long run. The next step is to do your research on the stocks (companies) that you have in mind or have heard from a friend or saw somewhere that picks your interest to see the values of the company, its aim & objectives, goals, and contribution to the society to know if it has the potential to grow in the nearest future because trust me you wouldn’t want to put in your hard-earned money into something that won’t make a profit. So once you do your research now you’re sure and confident of the stocks you want to buy into then you purchase a fraction of the stock you can afford. Well, I’m sure some of you might see the research as a problem to do, but you can as well get a financial advisor or a friend who you know is well vast in stocks and ask questions about the stock that interests you to know the short term and long term effect of the stock if it’s a good choice to opt-in for.
What you’d want to do next is open an investment account, because to invest in stocks you need an investment account. Once you’ve set up your account you’d have to make a deposit into it to start investing. Now that you’ve deposited you’ll search for the stocks you’ve researched and buy portions of the stocks to start building your portfolio (having purchased a number(s) of stocks in your account) and having purchased more than one stock in your investment account is called a diversified portfolio. Having a diversified portfolio reduces an investor’s (you in this case) overall risk profile, by doing this you tend not to put all your eggs(money) in one basket to risk your account in case anything should by chance go wrong with the company you invested in.
At this point you’ll need to be aware that stock investment isn’t a “get rich quick” plan, you’ll have to focus on investing for the long term which research has also proven to be true and most effective, and when I say long term I mean 6 months upwards and you. At this point, I’ll give you a thumbs up because not many people would get here. One thing you should be aware of in the period of holding your stocks after investing might be the hardest thing you’ll do, is not to check in on your stock portfolio every minute of every day because at some point you’d get frustrated and any dip in the market might want you to get out of your position. It’s good to avoid the urge compelling urge of checking your portfolio numerous times a day or every day. The best practice is to check in on your stocks once or twice a month to see how it’s going, reading news about the companies you invested in to be updated on their progress by doing that you’re managing your stock portfolio and when you’ve attained this I can confidently tell you that you’re a stock investor.
