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SERIES: BEGINNER STOCK INVESTING
From Roth IRA to Brokerage Account — Manage Your Investments as Your Career Progresses
Thank you, Dad.
Disclaimer: The information in this article is directed primarily at an American audience and is meant for young adults who are just beginning to invest.
My goal is to teach you how to invest if you’re a beginner, not to tell you what specific instruments to invest in. I am not a professional stock broker or financial advisor; I’m simply an average person who is interested in stock investing and who has met with some success in my personal retirement planning for over thirty years. Thus, this is not investing advice. I don’t invest the way professional brokerage account managers do.
If you need professional advice — and I advise everyone to get that, please look up fiduciaries in your area from places like Charles Schwab, TD Ameritrade, Fisher Investments, Edward Jones, or the like. Do your own research before buying any stock or ETF.
Why stock investing?
Stock investing is the very definition of passive income. While stock investing is a long-term money-making project, pretty much the only thing you have to do is deposit money into your brokerage account or Roth IRA every month and choose stocks to invest in. Then watch your investment grow.
If you select good dividend stocks of solid companies, you can literally set it and forget it after a while. A dividend stock portfolio provides true passive income and needs very little maintenance. Just don’t expect to get rich quickly from it. Unless you win a lottery jackpot, it will take you years to grow a dividend-based investment portfolio.
Why stocks and not cryptocurrency?
The simple answer is, because I don’t understand cryptocurrencies or blockchain well enough to invest in them, much less advise other people about what they are and how to invest in them. There are plenty of writers on Medium who seem to be experts in crypto, so if that interests you, I invite you to learn from them.
