SERIES: Investing Fundamentals Part 1 – Diversify Yourself

Welcome to the latest series at JosephSangl.com – “Investing Fundamentals”  Investing is consistently rated by our audience as one of the most confusing topics they face. In this series, we are going to share some foundational principles that can really help you understand investing better!

One  Diversify Yourself

I’m sure you have heard someone say don’t put all your eggs in one basket. That directly relates to investing! A key step when investing is to diversify your investments. For example you should not put all the money you can into one company’s stock, instead spread your investment out. By spreading out your investment you greatly lower the risk of your investment.

You can research countless times where people have put a large portion of their money into one company only to have it fail, which means that they lost A LOT of money. Several people lost large sums of money when they only invested in Enron during the early 2000’s and then it went under. If these people would have diversified their investments they could have softened the blow.

An easy way for you to diversify your investments is to look into investing in mutual funds. A mutual fund allows you to purchase a portion of many stocks and bonds with the single share purchase so you are automatically diversified even though you have only bought 1 share! Also DON’T JUST THINK ABOUT STOCKS. Invest in a new business or a home that can be rented out. You don’t have to just think about the stock market when it comes to investments! You have a world of things to invest in! Real estate, land, new businesses, or even your own business.

STEPS TO TAKE:

  • Review your investment choices. Are they diverse?
  • Are you only investing in one type of company? If yes, take steps to address right away!
  • What other investments could you make outside of the stock market?

RECOMMENDED RESOURCE:

NOTE: This post contributed by IWBNIN intern – Craig Fatt

Leave a Comment