"It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare, it is because we do not dare that things are difficult!" Lucius Annaeus Seneca (5 BC - 65 AD)
If you're just starting out as an investor, doesn't matter your age, it's kind of scary!
You know you're supposed to do something with your money, but what?
Where do you really start and what's considered safe?
First ... Relax!
Don't think you have to know everything today. It takes years to understand investing, and no one fully knows exactly what's happening all the time.
So you're not alone if you're feeling a little overwhelmed and under-informed. Eventually you will make investment decisions with as many facts as you can assemble but you have to realize that you can never really know everything.
The best part of investing is to learn to live with the anxiety of the unknown!
There are always nay-sayers who will tell you that investing is for professionals, or that the market is too high, or that it is going to crash!
The first statement is false! The second is relative depending on a bunch of factors and the third is always a possibility depending on how you define crash!
If the Index goes to 10000 and "crashes" back to 8000 and you invested at 7000 you have not really suffered! Is this a crash?
Well, that depends on how you define crash. If you bought stocks at 10000, and sold at 8000, then you have experienced a "crash."
If you bought and held on, or used down market strategies that you have learned to hedge your investment, then you have not experience a crash.
You have experienced an educational event!
And if the market recovers and goes to 11000 and you stayed the course; you have made some good money.
The point is that in order to understand the investment world you have to get started, and in order to get started you have to make the commitment that you can achieve your goals.
In order to achieve your goals you must learn about the markets and invest some of your income to get to where you want to be.
It is as simple as that!
You can try it and chances are that you will be happy when you get to a point a few years down the road and look at your brokerage account, you will say ...
"I did that and I am proud of it!"
So, don't listen to the bad vibe discouraging people. Most of them were saying the same things when the Index was at half the size it is today!
About the Author
Copyright © 2005 Ioannis - Evangelos (Akis) C. Haramis haramis@greekshares.com http://www.greekshares.com Ioannis - Evangelos (Akis) C. Haramis was born in Athens, Greece in 1951. He studied in Greece, in USA and in Belgium and has been active in the stock markets since 1972. Since 2002 he is New Business Development Managing Director at an Investment Bank and the editor of http://www.greekshares.com