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Investments today — is it fashionable or necessary? You can find a lot of tips and marathons for novice investors on the Web, and their authors say that you can start even with a minimum amount. And they are partly right, but only partly. Investment expert Dmitry Tolstyakov explains what questions you need to solve before you go to the stock exchange with a thousand rubles.
Question 1. Are you sure you want to invest?
Before you start investing, you need to carefully assess your current financial situation. If you have a very small amount, it is likely that everything is not going well with the budget — which means that first you need to figure out the items of expenditure and your income.
To invest, income must exceed expenses. If now you are in a state of a kind of balance — that is, your income is enough to live until the next salary, or that thousand rubles remains — then you still need to work with your current financial situation first of all.
Either look for extra expenses, or increase income. It makes sense to invest when you know for sure that you have a certain amount for this every month. Because regularity and discipline is one of the foundations of successful long-term investing.
Question 2. Do you have an airbag?
It’s not about the car, but about guaranteeing your financial security. According to experts, each person should have an amount that will last you 2-3 (and sometimes up to 6) months if you lose your main source of income. You can call it whatever you like — an airbag, a reserve for a «rainy day», «NZ». The main thing is that it should be. And before you start investing, make sure you have this amount in your account.
Question 3. Are there any loans?
If you are now repaying a loan, you need to consider what is more profitable — to pay it off ahead of schedule (that is, to invest in it the money that you planned to invest every month) or still go to buy stocks and funds.
You need to look at interest: how much you pay for a loan and how much you can get from investments. In the case of a mortgage, early repayment may not be profitable (for example, you have a preferential rate of 6%), but consumer loans are almost always more profitable to pay off ahead of schedule. Therefore, if you have loans for an iPhone or household appliances, pay them off first, and then think about investing.
Question 4. How do you feel?
Your well-being is the most important investment. It is much easier and cheaper to prevent health problems than to treat them later.
Therefore, if you haven’t taken care of yourself for a long time, it’s better to spend money on exactly this: go through a check-up, get your teeth fixed, make an appointment with the doctor you planned to see for a long time. And after, when all the problems are solved, start studying investing.
Question 5. Do you want to improve your skills?
Investing in yourself is very important. If you now have only a small amount of free money, then you have room to grow. Invest in your education — take a financial literacy course, a refresher course, or a related career that will bring you more money over time.
Even just good books on psychology will help change the mind or give impetus to growth so that the initial amount is higher than the current one.
What if you still invest?
I still advise you to save up a larger amount — and enter the stock market with an initial investment of at least 100 rubles. On this basis, you can create a balanced portfolio, in which at first I recommend including primarily ETFs (Foreign Exchange Traded Funds).
Of course, you can start investing with only 1000 rubles in your wallet — I demonstrate this in the Live Portfolio section on my YouTube channel. However, with such an investment, almost all profitability will go to the broker’s commission.
Let’s count. If the broker’s commission averages 200 rubles per month, then you will pay 2 rubles per year. So, if you invested 400 rubles in a year, you lost 10% on commission! The average return on the Russian stock market is 000% per annum since 24. So you are just losing money.
Therefore, I would consider such an investment more as an education, and not an attempt to get rich. So my advice is this: if now you cannot invest at least 50 rubles, then start saving money to a separate account or card with interest on the balance. At the same time, learn the materiel — for example, take a course on investments — and make a competent portfolio.
And enter the market when the amount on the account grows to the desired one. And most importantly, in no case do not take your money to muddy offices that offer 100% per month. This is a XNUMX% fraud, and it will be a pity to lose even a small amount in it. Choose reliable brokers and safe instruments.