Investing is a great way to build wealth and achieve financial goals, but there’s much more to it than choosing an asset class and dropping some cash. For example, you need to educate yourself and decide on the best investment strategies, which must be aligned with your financial goals. Throughout this article, you will find insights on setting goals, picking trading strategies, and bringing them together.
Before you start exploring investment opportunities, you need to have a firm grasp on your financial goals because they’ll help steer your decisions. Think about what you want to achieve in the short, medium, and long term. For example, are you trying to send your children to college, save for retirement, or simply pay off debt?
When you’ve identified your overall target, you can turn them into specific goals using the SMART system. This means your goals should be specific, measurable, achievable, and time bound. For example, instead of saying “I want to save for a mortgage”, you could say “I want to save $30K in the next five years”. This goal sets a time limit, is very specific, and is easy to measure.
With your clear goals in place, it’s time to explore different investment strategies to help you achieve them. There are many different investment opportunities and strategies to choose from, and each comes with its own risks and rewards.
The most common investment market is stocks, which involves buying a share in a company and making a profit as it rises in value. When trading in stocks, there are plenty of different strategies including day trading, growth investment, dollar cost averaging, and momentum investing.
Another type of investment gaining traction over recent years is options trading, which involves buying or selling a contract representing an underlying asset. The price is pre-set, and the execution takes place at a later date. Buyers aren’t obligated to follow through, but sellers must honor the price.
Regardless of your chosen trading strategy, it’s important to carry out research and learn everything you possibly can. Great resources include books and podcasts by expert investors, like those detailed over at jamescordier.com.
Once you have clear goals and a firm grasp on which trading strategies are out there, it’s time to bring them together. This means picking a purpose-built strategy to suit your investment goals. For example, if you’re saving for retirement, then bonds and stocks are a great idea because they’ll build a higher return over a long period. Alternatively, if you’re attempting to save for a mortgage, then short-term strategies like CDs (certificates of deposit) may be more suitable.
When deciding on the best strategy to follow, it’s a good idea to take into account your risk tolerance, timeline, investment knowledge, and financial resources. Some strategies can fit your goals but may not be feasible.
By setting clear financial goals, exploring investment strategies, and then bringing them together, you’ll have a much better chance of finding success.
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