HAPPY NEW YEAR!! 2021 is here again, I think at a point, we all assumed that 2021 would be our liberating year as we will invest this year? Right?  2020 has really been a year of confusion and lesson taught the painful way. Let me ask you, what lesson have you learnt throughout 2020? What has been your experience? To be fair, 2020 has been a love-hate experience for me. We have lost a lot of people, resources and finance, while on the flip-side, it has made us very aware of our lives and future.

The one sector that had the impact of the pandemic hit would be the global economy. The economy market fell from record high to the bear-market ground in just a couple weeks. Back to Nigeria, the sudden pandemic has left so many Nigerians unemployed, drastically reduced the volume of exportation especially crude oil, the Nigerian economy has contracted by 6.1% by the second quarter on last year (2020). The pandemic has made a lot of youth jobless, confused and also made a lot of people self-aware of the possibility of the unknown to come. In general, 2020 wasn’t a well-off year to live through again.

That is why I would be sharing 3 investment tips to help prepare us for the future and how to invest this year.

1)         Be prepared to be disciplined to invest:

Financial discipline can be a little difficult for most people despite having good intentions to actualize them, Most Investors gives themselves unrealistic figures to attain for a short period of time but they end up not meeting them or attaching emotional importance when they lose or feel depressed with the loss of funds or maybe incurring far more trading cost than applying self-discipline, all these are factoring why most investors fail. I have seen and also experience businesses collapsed because proper discipline wasn’t followed.

To be disciplined, you need to be patient with the process, especially when you are planning your investment strategy. Most types of investment carry some amount of risk and time, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take the bull by the horn and work it out. You just need to be determined to know the level of risk that is appropriate for your investment time, risk tolerance and as well financial situation.

Once you have been able to differentiate this and master the art of investment, then you would be able to choose a mix of stocks, fixed income and short-term investment ideal for you. In a nutshell, the potentials of higher returns must be balanced against a higher risk of loss. And again, becoming too careful might make you earn less while being too rational might make you lose a lot especially with a volatile market, both could compromise your ability to meet your financial goals. Find a balance, set a realistic figure and patiently go through the process.

2)    Start investing as soon as you start earning:

This is all about saving and investing, I would say salary earners and young adult can relate to this. Saving money and investing work hand in hand, in order to invest, you would need to have the required capital to and If you don’t have, you need to save up some money. If you have never had the habit of saving, you can start by putting away 500 Naira per day or less as it suits you. That might seem a lot and a little for others, but over the course of a year, you would be making 182,500 Naira counting this January 2021.

Get yourself into the habit of saving and with its return or proceed, you can buy shares, stock and even a cryptocurrency. You can also start automated savings e.g piggyvest, this is a separate account from your financial checking account. The money can be withdrawn on your own designated days. When you have saved enough, you can then take it out and move it into an actual investment plan and invest this year.

3)    Acquire an ownership stake in a business.

Let me start by explaining the two types of investment in the business, we have debt and equity. The debit is when you lend money to a company with the expectation of getting it back with interest, while equity is when you buy shares and asset. Okay? For example, if you want to own the majority stake in a company, you need to own about 50% of all outstanding shares. Another way to explain this is equity can be said to be the percentage of a business owned by the holder of shares of stock in a company. People assume that owning a stock especially in private companies are meant for the rich but you can buy shares nowadays and watch it grow.

In summary, investing will always be the best way to go, however, you cannot invest when you do not have the capital to do so. How about you start making money by just referring students via Refer Wallet and get $200 on every student who gets admitted and enrols in school. That means if you successfully refer 5 students, you have made $1000. That is some good money to begin an investment this year.

GOOD LUCK!