Albert Einstein has often referred to compounding as the 8th wonder of the world. Indeed, the power of compounding is astonishing. The only problem is that at the beginning you won't see much of a reward. Yet this is the key to winning in the stock market: over the long term, you will make a lot of money because time is on your side. This article is not about get-rich-quick schemes involving the stock market. It's about setting up your plan so that you position yourself to be sitting pretty a couple of decades from now. Let's get started.
1. Be specific what your goal is. Want to retire comfortably in your own small house, doing what you enjoy? Want to put your kids through college first and foremost? Want to buy a boat and sail around the world? Decide what your primary goal is and fit various investment opportunities according to how well they match it. Having a laid out plan diminishes the risk of you reacting to market fluctuations and making irrational decisions. They are usually costly.
2. Devise a strategy. If you look up stock market investment strategies, it seems as if everyone has THE winning formula for success in the stock market. Obviously, they can't all be right, although there are some time-tested principles that all the greats have never strayed from. Find one of these strategies that you're most comfortable with, take it, and literally run with it. As in everything, you might come to a point where you have to improvise and make a little detour, but those moments should be the exception; changing your plan when a situation arises should never be the rule.
3. Weigh probable risks. It is absolutely essential that you highlight the risks your investment will bring up with a realistic view, not an overly optimistic one. The management system you choose must bring effectiveness and practicality to the table, so that you can bring the risk of losing money to a minimum, even if the investment turns out to be a dud. Also, it's important to complete this step before looking into what kind of profit the planned investment can bring you. If you reverse the order, you run the risk of being so excited over the money you might be making that you could overlook some serious risks.
4. Think about profit potential. One of the hardest parts about investing is knowing when to cash out once you're riding a winner. You should have a set threshold where you sell off enough to at least recoup your initial investment, and then ride the profits as long as you can. Know when and how to get out.
5. Keep an eye out for comparable opportunities. Do a little more research. Check to see if there are other investments that have fewer risks, a better profit potential, or if there are is another strategy that will make your life easier (or hopefully a little richer at the end of the day).
6. Scale the mountain. This step goes hand in hand with devising a strategy from the get-go. Every investment you make will have its unique challenges to optimize rewards and minimize losses. Anticipating them gives you a leg up that will allow you to achieve that exact goal.
7. Have your plan B handy. Set specific boundaries as to when you should get out of an investment. Whether everything goes wrong and you need to bail out or you've hit it big and need to move on to other investments, having explicit, well laid-out limits prevents you from losing returns or just losing more money.
8. Choose the right investments. Investing takes time, so for one last time look over your new project as a whole. Now you've got all the pieces to see the puzzle as if it was completed, and can determine if this investment is really worth your time and effort. And if it isn't, there's no need to dwell on it: starting a new plan is certainly less painful than losing a couple thousand dollars because of an ill-advised investment plan.
9. Reach for the stars. After you've made the decision to put money into such and such investment, it's time to stop over-analyzing and start taking action. As it turns out, even if you picked the absolute worse investment, you won't have lost everything you own because you did your homework and set limits to your losses. Your game plan, as long as it is sound, will produce solid returns in the long run if you stick to it.
10. Debrief. At set intervals, go over your plan. If a couple of missteps here and there cost you a lot of money, try to identify them and make sure that you don't keep repeating them. Don't give up: we learn more from our failures than from our successes. Hang in there, make small changes; keep what works and discard what doesn't until you all your personal success ingredients come together and you carve out your very own formula for stock market riches.
1. Be specific what your goal is. Want to retire comfortably in your own small house, doing what you enjoy? Want to put your kids through college first and foremost? Want to buy a boat and sail around the world? Decide what your primary goal is and fit various investment opportunities according to how well they match it. Having a laid out plan diminishes the risk of you reacting to market fluctuations and making irrational decisions. They are usually costly.
2. Devise a strategy. If you look up stock market investment strategies, it seems as if everyone has THE winning formula for success in the stock market. Obviously, they can't all be right, although there are some time-tested principles that all the greats have never strayed from. Find one of these strategies that you're most comfortable with, take it, and literally run with it. As in everything, you might come to a point where you have to improvise and make a little detour, but those moments should be the exception; changing your plan when a situation arises should never be the rule.
3. Weigh probable risks. It is absolutely essential that you highlight the risks your investment will bring up with a realistic view, not an overly optimistic one. The management system you choose must bring effectiveness and practicality to the table, so that you can bring the risk of losing money to a minimum, even if the investment turns out to be a dud. Also, it's important to complete this step before looking into what kind of profit the planned investment can bring you. If you reverse the order, you run the risk of being so excited over the money you might be making that you could overlook some serious risks.
4. Think about profit potential. One of the hardest parts about investing is knowing when to cash out once you're riding a winner. You should have a set threshold where you sell off enough to at least recoup your initial investment, and then ride the profits as long as you can. Know when and how to get out.
5. Keep an eye out for comparable opportunities. Do a little more research. Check to see if there are other investments that have fewer risks, a better profit potential, or if there are is another strategy that will make your life easier (or hopefully a little richer at the end of the day).
6. Scale the mountain. This step goes hand in hand with devising a strategy from the get-go. Every investment you make will have its unique challenges to optimize rewards and minimize losses. Anticipating them gives you a leg up that will allow you to achieve that exact goal.
7. Have your plan B handy. Set specific boundaries as to when you should get out of an investment. Whether everything goes wrong and you need to bail out or you've hit it big and need to move on to other investments, having explicit, well laid-out limits prevents you from losing returns or just losing more money.
8. Choose the right investments. Investing takes time, so for one last time look over your new project as a whole. Now you've got all the pieces to see the puzzle as if it was completed, and can determine if this investment is really worth your time and effort. And if it isn't, there's no need to dwell on it: starting a new plan is certainly less painful than losing a couple thousand dollars because of an ill-advised investment plan.
9. Reach for the stars. After you've made the decision to put money into such and such investment, it's time to stop over-analyzing and start taking action. As it turns out, even if you picked the absolute worse investment, you won't have lost everything you own because you did your homework and set limits to your losses. Your game plan, as long as it is sound, will produce solid returns in the long run if you stick to it.
10. Debrief. At set intervals, go over your plan. If a couple of missteps here and there cost you a lot of money, try to identify them and make sure that you don't keep repeating them. Don't give up: we learn more from our failures than from our successes. Hang in there, make small changes; keep what works and discard what doesn't until you all your personal success ingredients come together and you carve out your very own formula for stock market riches.
About the Author:
Before you invest, make sure you read our extensive stock market success article. You can also find more financial tips on our personal finance blog, Money Galaxy.
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