If you were reading my blog last year, you’d know I went through a bit of a financial bug. After becoming obsessed with Dave Ramsey and his financial teachings, I became extremely interested in the market, investing, and managing my money. I’m a firm believer that anyone can do this and follow what he teaches if they have the mind to. It’s not hard to learn, it’s just hard to do because it takes discipline. While I became more passive with my money as of late, occasionally checking in on my budget but letting my automated transactions do all the work, I’ve started to revamp my active interest.
I’m still learning the basics of stock investing. I have a small small pool of money that I use to play around the market with. 99% of all the money I invest goes into mutual funds because if I actively traded individual stocks with it, I’d be dead broke. I’m no trader. But I like having the opportunity to learn how the market works with real money, hence my small pool of money. I’ve invested very small amounts into a few companies to see how well I do at picking my portfolio and thankfully it’s only been that small pool because I haven’t picked all that well. I’m still learning market trends, valuing companies, and picking the right growth/value stocks for the time. Unfortunately, the market can be difficult to learn. Right as you think you have it figured out, it crashes, or explodes, or remains stagnant. The company you could’ve valued to be the next Microsoft might plunge and you lose nearly all of your investment. The company you thought to be worthless could’ve taken off overnight. Despite the years and years of education and experience some traders have, the market is still unpredictable.
From friends who’ve been in the market longer than I, I’ve learned the best you can hope to do legally is make educated guesses. Using past trends, whatever system you’ve developed to value a company, and your crystal ball of hope for the future, you can hope your guess was right. Some guesses are more likely than others but that all comes with doing your research, a habit and skill I’m still developing each day. Especially with the daily drastic changes we’ve seen in the world, our government, and the economy, making those predictions has become rather difficult.
Drew Schroeder 