How to Get Over Your Fear of Investing
Fear (false enemies appearing real) applies a great deal for new investors who are less familiar with the potholes of the landscape. There are a few mind tweaks, however, that you can take in order to immediately get over this fear. Let's take a look at these ideas. Fear disappears when you accept that losses are inevitable: The vast majority of the fear people have for investing is the fear of loss. People think that losing money in the investment world is somehow different from losing money paying bills, going to dinner or putting gas in the car. Honestly, it isn't! Once you realize that investing involves risk, and you accept this, the fear goes away. You will likely lose money, and you will also gain money. The secret is to simply gain more money than you lose. Having a plan to gain more money than you lose: The next step in losing fear is gaining a plan. Even the best investors lose money. The secret is to have a plan to get it back. Creating a plan requires a great deal of study. The more that you study, the better your plans for gaining money in the market will become. There are many tools that you can use in order to gain money. Not all of them will apply to you. Some of them are contingent on your personality – others are contingent on the types of investments that you like.
Choosing a niche: Another thing that people do not understand about investing is that it is not something that is done from a birds eye view. You need to get your hands dirty in your investments if you are going to succeed with them. What does this mean? It means that you actually have to enjoy the companies that you are investing in. This is actually a great opportunity. It means that you should only invest in companies that you have an interest in. If you have been using a certain type of product for your entire life, then you should take a look at that company first before you take a look at any other company. It is more likely that you will stick with an investment for a company that you enjoy. Paper investing: Another way to get rid of your fear for investing is to invest on paper first. You can very easily determine how good you are by simply following investments that you put on paper but you do not actually make. You can actually create an entire portfolio for yourself in a notebook without investing one dollar into the market. Take the time to follow this portfolio for a year. If you cannot, then you know one other thing as well – you probably do not have the self-discipline that it would take to make money in the real market. If so, then you can completely get rid of the fear of investing by saying that you are not ready. Just quit. This may not be what you want to hear, but it is the truth! You don't want to quit. So get to work! Mark Angelo is the co-founder of Yorkville Advisors.