At a time when almost every other young person is obsessed with the craze of acquiring expensive gadgets, holidaying in the most exotic of places, getting loans to furnish expensive lifestyles, buying expensive cars only to park them outside rented houses, it is easy to view that as the ideal life. Social media has done little to help the situation. Whenever these young people buy something, dine at an expensive hotel or travel to a place, they take a gazillion pictures and clutter people’s timelines gloating how good life is for them.
It is easy to be caught up in this web of bragging and forget to make wise investment decisions. The sad reality is that, at a certain point in life, these things stop making sense. People stop liking your photos on Instagram, the banks come looking for you in case you default in paying your loans, your rent is tripled and you have to consider getting your own place. You therefore cannot afford to waste your youth living to impress others at the detriment of your own future. Become prudent as early as now, make wise financial decisions, live within your means. There are many advantages of learning to invest when you are still young, here are some:
Chance to grow with your business
Investing at a young age helps your investments to grow as you do. For instance, purchasing a portfolio of shares and holding them for a while, gives you the chance to enjoy dividends for a long time as the share price goes up. You also get the chance to make as many mistakes, learn from them and make the right decisions in future. Observing where others go wrong also helps you to be a better investor. You are able to diversify the investment portfolio as you grow.
You’re most energetic in your youth
Youth is the golden age. The age when your bones haven’t started squeaking yet and you can go for hours without getting tired. This is when you are able to work from very early in the morning to very late in the night. The beauty about this age lies in the fact that you can tackle multiple tasks that will prove vital in future. Here, you can have a regular job, set up a business to run on the side and maybe have other investments such as shares and still manage all that with little hassle. This is difficult for the older people as they have many commitments which take up much of their time and energy. Again, age starts to take a toll on them which compounds this problem even further.
You learn the value of teamwork
As a young person, you don’t have the luxury of millions of money at your disposal to invest. This is where it becomes important to team up with people who have similar ideas as you and you pool funds together to invest as a group. However little the amount is, it is more than what you could raise on your own. Tasks, profits and losses are shared among the members of the group as per the agreements. The value of teamwork is inculcated in you at this young age.
You have little or nothing to lose
As earlier stated, most young people don’t have much money. You are either fresh from school or not from affluent families. With little or nothing to lose, this gives you the chance to try out a number of ventures without fearing you would incur losses. Unlike a business person who has a portfolio of investments, you can be more daring and take more risks as you would not suffer much in the event of a loss.
It is easier to find a helping hand
There are visionary people out there. Wealthy people willing to invest in your business as long as you pitch your ideas well. If you show that you are passionate about what you do and aware of what is required, these people will not hesitate helping you navigate the business world. Be it financially or morally.
What ails the young person even after reading this is procrastination. You don’t have to wait until you have millions in the bank to start investing, JUST DO IT. NOW. You will have yourself to thank later if you make the right decisions now.
