When you don’t understand the stock market or feel overwhelmed by the daunting task of managing your finances, it can be very tempting to just hand everything over to someone else and hope for the best.
But that’s not the key to financial freedom – taking control of your investments is.
Imagine this: It’s 2 am. You’re a successful business owner, but here you are, wide awake, your mind racing with fear. What if the stock market doesn’t go your way? What happens next?
That’s what happens when you don’t take control of your finances yourself: You’re left feeling powerless, anxious, and unable to sleep at night.
But it doesn’t have to be that way…
In this blog post, we’ll explore the benefits of taking control of your finances and how you can do it too. We’ll cover everything from budgeting to market analysis and even how to pick the right investments for you.
The Risks of Not Taking Control of Your Money
Let’s begin by delving into a cautionary tale.
Meet Darren Sanders, a successful farm owner living the dream. Darren had always been cautious and wary of the stock market – especially when it came to trusting someone else to manage his finances.
His father had experienced a financial loss when he trusted the wrong person, and Darren was determined not to make the same mistake.
“I didn’t like the idea of handing someone a pile of money and then having to trust them to do the right thing with it. My father has been involved in the stock market using a broker, and done very poorly and then the GFC came along and took 3/4 of it away. So the stock market was something that I was very wary of, but it wasn’t until we learned how Terry does things that I understood that it can be done successfully without too much hassle and have that control.”
The moral of the story? By not actively managing your investments, you’re risking more than just your money – you’re risking your future.
Taking Control Is The Key To Financial Freedom
Now let’s look at the flip side: What happens when you take control of your finances and actively manage your investments?
1) You Gain Total Control
The most obvious benefit is that you gain total control. You’re no longer at the mercy of a third party to do what they think is best – you have the freedom to decide which investments are right for you and how to deploy them in order to maximize your returns.
2) You Gain Confidence
By taking control, you’re gaining a greater understanding of the stock market and how it works – knowledge that will serve you well in the future. You’ll find yourself feeling more confident in your decisions, and with that confidence comes a newfound sense of financial freedom.
3) You Can Get Better Returns
I’ve somewhat mentioned this in a previous post about the advantages we have as individual investors over fund managers, but when you take control of your stock investments, you can get better returns than if you had someone else doing it for you.
Some of the major reasons for this are the lower fees you pay when investing on your own, being able to enter and exit positions faster due to a shorter decision-making cycle, and the ability to hold cash in times of market volatility.
➜ Related Post: 5 Reasons Why the Everyday Investor Can Outperform Fund Managers
Taking Control Is Easier Than You Think
Now I know what you might be thinking: “I don’t have time for this! This seems like it’s going to take a ton of effort and I don’t want to learn all the jargon!“
But taking control of your finances doesn’t have to be complicated or time-consuming. With the right tools and resources, you can quickly jump into stock investments and start building your understanding of the market in no time.
Take Vicky Ho, for example. Vicky is a busy cosmetic dentist who manages her own investments every night in only 15-20 minutes:
“It’s actually really quick, it’s so easy. You work with a few stocks because there’s fundamental analysis; there’s only a short list of stocks anyway between 30 and 50 – it’s the same ones that keep coming up so you already know these companies; you’ve done all that analysis. It takes me literally 15-20 minutes a night if anything, just scan through everything. If I need to buy and sell it takes a little bit longer but not much longer and I just do it and it – So I allocate between 9:30 and 10:30 before bed, is my trading time every night.”
You too can make the most of your investments and take control of your finances.
Your Guide(s) to Taking Control
So now that you know the importance of taking control of your finances, how exactly do you get started? Here are 3 resources you might useful.
- The first is my comprehensive blog post: Going From Absolute Novice To Confident Investor (The Complete Stock Investing Guide). It goes through all the steps you need to take in order to become a confident investor and reach your financial goals.
- The second is our FREE 10 Stock Criteria Checklist, which helps you identify what I consider to be the financially strongest 1% of stocks in the market at any time in less than 5 minutes. Click here to learn more.
- The third is our FREE 90-Minute Online Masterclass, where I’ll show you how I personally anticipate market crashes in advance and prepare for them. Click here to learn more if you’re interested.
The Bottom Line
Taking control of your finances and investments doesn’t have to be a daunting task. With the right resources and guidance, you can start taking the necessary steps towards financial freedom and security.
Don’t just invest – take control of your money today! Reach out to us if you need help or have any questions. At The Freedom Trader, we’re here for you every step of the way. Good luck!
Terry
