New investor advice

Hello everyone,
I'm up late searching for some friendly advice for a new investor. I have built up some savings that I intend to use for investing, but could do with a steer on how to get started.
Thanks,
Bradley

 

Any thoughts? In terms of where to invest?
Bradley

 

Bradley,
My suggestion is you first need to work out what you are trying to achieve and over what time period. Your age, your financial and lifestyle circumstances, your interests in being an active investor or passive, your preferences as to what type of investment suits you (some believe in the share market, others will not touch it at all and a property based, many do both) are all factors that will help determine what you should do.

List those down on a piece of paper and see what you come with and that will guide you to the areas to start your research on. Then you work out what is possible with the savings you have and whether you then need to gear your savings to buy investment assets based on your borrowing capacity, your risk appetite and your ability to repay a loan as required.

Good luck with it but your question is very wide.

 

Hey Bradley,

Good advice is definitely essential. Don't fall into the trap of listening to friends or family which a lot of people seem to do when inexperienced in investing.

I have a particular interest in shares and majority of my portfolio is allocated to this, however other people have different preferences. As Robert Kiyosaki says - never get attached to one investment 'vehicle'.

The basic start is that you need to set up an investment portfolio meaning you should allocate some of your money into different investments. The basic portfolio has:

• shares
• property
• government/corporate bonds and
• cash in the bank

The weighting you would give to each of these areas will depend on which class is performing the best at any given time. For example, recently the share market has gone great and there is some who believe this will continue..

A book like this is also a good start to getting into investing.

Let me know how you get on mate.

Cheers,

Tom

 

Thanks for the advice Greg and Tom.

Very thoughtful and interesting.

I think property investment is something that interests me. I have moved around a lot during my lifetime and always found the amount of money that can be made on property depending on the market, very surprising.

Another area that both my wife and I are interested in is gem investment. Any thoughts on that?

Thanks,

Bradley