Start Investing

The Modest Economist ™

Start Investing. No Experience Required.

 

The Modest Economist is a publication dedicated to teaching women how to invest. Regardless of your experience, education, profession, or stage of life, learning how to invest is a process anyone can learn. Friends often ask me “How do I start investing?” or “What am I invested in?” or “Do you have any idea what the hieroglyphics on this statement mean?

 

I do know how to start. I speak the jargon and I can read the hieroglyphics.

 

My tag line “Start Investing. No Experience Required.” is the story of how I started investing and how I know that you can start investing without experience.

 

My investing experience started when I became a licensed “stock” broker. Today the term “stockbroker” or “broker” is used more generically to describe “Wealth Managers,” “Registered Investment Advisors” or “Private Wealth Managers.” Very few brokers pick individual stocks or bonds today.

A broker was the guy your Dad called for stock tips.

 

I was first hired as a broker by a small regional brokerage firm. I started in a cubicle in an office with 23 men. My job was to build a client base by selling stocks and bonds. Did I know anything about investing then? Nope. Absolutely nothing. My job was to make 100 calls a day and convince people I had never met, to invest their money with me and believe in my brilliant stock ideas.

When I started investing other people’s money, I had never traded a stock, bond, or mutual fund.

 

The brilliant stock ideas came from research analysts. I was skeptical. I didn’t believe that analysis alone could explain human behavior. Markets are all about buying and selling. How can you predict someone’s motivation to buy or sell anything?

There was a lot of technical language (jargon) and analytics used to promote very convincing arguments about a company’s future stock price. The language and the jargon didn’t work for me. I thought I sounded ridiculous using terms that did not come naturally to me.

The recommendations for stock ideas didn’t work out so well either. The minute I started seeing clients lose money in the stock market based on my recommendation, I felt responsible.

 

So, I decided not to be a stockbroker. I moved into the world of bonds. (For now, I’ll spare you the details of the bond market).

 

Over time I learned enough to begin investing on my own. What I found is that investing is a process: a step- by- step process that is best taken one small step at a time.

 

This is the purpose of The Modest Economist. To break down the world of investing into bite- sized easily digestible pieces that make sense.

 

I spent over 30 years learning how to invest, but who has that kind of time today? No one.

 

Let me be clear – I am not going to manage your money or investments for you. The whole point of The Modest Economist is for you to learn how to do it.

 

Before we take the first step, let’s review and dismiss the conventional reasons why women are less likely to invest:

 

• Industry is dominated by men. More women investing will change that.
• Too much jargon. If we get past the technical terms will you invest?
• Reliance on charts, graphs, data, and math. True. There are other ways to tell a story, and a story is all it really is. You do not need a degree in math or finance.
• Too many choices to know what to do. True/False. There are too many choices. Knowing what to do and how to do it is what we are going to learn.
• Not enough time. There will never be enough time if investing is at the bottom of your list. If it takes less time than you think, then will you invest?
• I don’t have enough money to invest. False. There are many options today that have low minimum requirements.
• My Husband/partner/brother/uncle/ does the investing. It is easier for me to let him do it.

And what happens when he doesn’t do it and you don’t know what to do?

• Too boring. Mostly true. I will liven it up, so it isn’t boring.
• Does anybody have fun investing? Although I can’t promise to make you laugh with every article you will feel good when you feel empowered.

 

So, when do I start? When do I take that first step? Right now.

 

Here is your first assignment:

 

Know where your assets are. Do you have a savings account? Do you have a 401(k), IRA or other type of retirement/pension account? Do you have multiple small accounts with different banks and brokerage firms?

Do you have accounts you don’t know much about because someone else has always handled

them for you? Ask. Find out. It’s your money.

 

The goal with this first assignment is to look at all your assets together. If you only have one account this is going to be much easier for you. Take all your account statements and stick them in a pile. Or, for those of you who are “paperless,” a digital folder instead. That is all you have to do for now.

 

Hint: Google maps does not know where your assets are.

 

 

This website is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell, a solicitation to buy, or a recommendation for any security, nor does it constitute an offer to provide investment advisory or other services by The Modest Economist LLC.