I’ve never been busier with family calls from America, India, to UK. Not because it’s Christmas, but because they want to know how to buy stocks.
The truth is, the young can’t be bothered or want to trade and the old feel they’ve left it this long, so can leave it longer. Sound like you?
The truth is that time flies and you always wish you’d started sooner. Moreover international stocks, especially US ones, big brands, as a general rule exemplified by the S&P 500 (500 stocks) deliver greater returns than bank accounts or UK stocks.
The truth is you’re too scared or embarrassed to ask for help. You don’t know how to open a broker account (it’s like opening a bank account – that simple). You don’t know where to look on the internet (try Barclays or Halifax).
You’re too scared you would lose money. Well true. Even Microsoft fell for a month during the pandemic in 2020. If you have longer time frame in mind and are very worried, track an index (ie use an index tracker something which for instance tracks the S&P500) that will allay your fears.
You fear you have too little money. Actually, you can online just tell the broker ‘buy £1,000 worth of XYZ’
Maybe you fear you may need the money. Fine, you can sell the stock. Or if fear selling at a loss, then yes, keep enough in a bank account instead for emergencies of course.
But you’re scared too of picking bad stocks. Well, an index tracker like mentioned will be a good start. I also told my aunt who doesn’t have the time to monitor things to put it in Microsoft for 2021 as well.
Of course my family does not second guess me when I say Apple. They don’t argue. But I know the public like ‘hidden’ secret names. Well I continue liking Square and Tech Target.
The best advice I gave my cousins – get a junior ISA (tax free stock growth) for your kids and add money to it each year. The growth is tax free so that much quicker.
It’s never too early or too late. The best thing I can do is to keep repeating this as I have done in my books for over 20 years, my Financial Times columns and my Bloomberg TV shows. Yet it saddens me people are poorer than they should be because they didn’t invest.
