Are you looking for a summary of best tips on how to start investing? Then keep on reading! Below you will find the best tips from my 15 years of saving and investing
Why save and invest money?
It all depends on you, your ambition and goals in life. There is no natural law that says you have to save. In fact, a very large part of the population do not save. So you need to ask yourself, why do you want to save and invest?
My husband and I save to:
- have financial security and independency
- be able to have the same standard of living when we retire as today
- give our children a good start in life
- have time for what is important to us
- be able to have a freedom of choice in life
- be able to travel and in fact also to save the planet (our money has a greater environmental impact than our driving).
Our thesis is that money is not everything, but it solves certain problems and creates certain opportunities that you may want in your life. You can of course choose whether you agree with that thesis or not.
When to start?
Today is the best day to start saving and investing. The earlier you start saving and the longer you can save, the richer you will become. Just Do It! 🙂
Where to invest?
There are different investment philosophies that you can apply, no right or wrong as long as you avoid the losses.
I believe in investing according to the old oracles Benjamin Graham and Warren Buffett. Their value investment philosophy suits those who are not in a hurry, like to invest in quality companies, get dividends and like to research into companies’ annual accounts.
Given that many of us don’t have time to do extensive research on companies, I believe a feasible and practical option is to invest the majority of your money in a global stock index fund or use a fund robot. You would pay a maximum of 0.4% in fees per year and invest via an investment savings account (In Sweden that is called ISK).
I invest the majority of my own money via the (AI) artificial intelligence trading platform LYSA (by registering from this link, you will save 20% of Lysa’s fees for 3 months). The majority of all savers will get better savings than they have today with a AI trading bot. It is easy and fast to set up. It will take you around 15 minutes. LYSA acts only in Sweden (for now), but you can research for similar platform in your country (ex: eToro).
If you do not want or cannot choose a AI trading platform; choose a cheap global index fund. The good funds are: Länsförsäkringar Global Indexnära, Avanza Global or Nordnet Global. I like buying the funds via Avanza. It has a very easy to use platform and App. Try to include in your portfolio some funds that include companies that pays dividends.
Remember to automate the process so the money goes directly from your account to the investment platform and portfolio you’ve chosen on a monthly basis.
What’s an AI trading bot?
An AI trading bot is a service platform that helps you put together a portfolio for long-term savings consisting of various index funds. An index fund is a fund that owns all the company according to a certain criterion, e.g. all companies worldwide (= global index fund).
This means that an AI trading bot is really “only” a global index fund that has automated a lot of administrative tasks such as regular monthly savings, withdrawals, rebalancing, selection of funds, negotiation of fees, etc.
Suggested investment breakdown when starting:
Invest only 10% percent per year you have in your savings horizon.
- 60% of your investment money in the index funds for 6-year savings horizon.
- The rest in a bank account with a deposit guarantee. For example. Advanced Savings Account +.
Note that 10% per year in the savings horizon applies from any given occasion. All savings with a shorter savings horizon than 2 years must be in a bank account with a deposit guarantee.
IMPORTANT
Do not move the money in between, no matter what happens in the market. Be very critical when people claim that they can be active, time the market or choose better investments than others. There is no support for it in research. Changing your strategy depending on what the market does usually costs money rather than making a profit.
Save monthly automatically and regularly. You decide the right among for you based on your current lifestyle and goals.
The above will give you a better saving, in the form of risk-adjusted return, than what the majority of all private investors in the world have.
Good luck! 
Book tips for further reading:
Disclaimer: All analyzes and all other information provided by Modern Minimalist Lifestyle are provided for informational purposes only, for general dissemination, and shall under no circumstances be used or regarded as recommendation to buy or sell shares or other financial instruments. Opinions and analyzes presented are personal and the information alone should not form the basis for investment decisions. You should seek advice from licensed independent advisors and base your investment decisions based on your own experience and situation. Modern Minimalist Lifestyle recalls that trading in securities is associated with risks. An investment can, for example, both increase and decrease in value and it is not certain that you will get back all the invested capital. Historical returns are also no guarantee of future returns. Modern Minimalist Lifestyle hereby disclaims responsibility for any loss or damage of any kind based on the use of analyzes, documents and other information derived from Modern Minimalist Lifestyle.
