06-02-2018, 01:26 AM
(This post was last modified: 06-02-2018, 01:32 AM by crimsonghost747.)
My two cents.
I can somehow relate to your situations. I've always stayed away from real estate (even though it interests me very much) because it takes time and more importantly, you don't get to choose when and where. With stocks you can do everything at 3am if you feel like it. Or you can push back reading that quarterly report by a week if you don't have the time. And more importantly, all you need is a laptop and internet connection, your physical location makes no difference.
Getting started with investing takes time. You need to figure out a strategy for you: just stocks or also funds? Bonds? Which sectors? What sector / geographical diversification etc. How do the taxes go if you buy from abroad? You probably want to build some basic spreadsheets so you can compare different companies just so you can somehow define a list of which ones you want to look deeper into. You need to spend hours and hours reading through those financial reports so you get an idea of how each of these companies is doing, how it works, etc. Probably quite a bit of time reading different news websites, seeking alpha etc to get a better idea of what might be in the future for the company.
It's worth it to spend the time on figuring out what you want and how to accomplish that. But after the strategy is done then it can go pretty much to "buy and forget about it". Maybe once in a while you will want to take a look at a new company or re-evaluate one that you already have but that's relatively easy since you already know quite a bit about the company.
I spend maybe an hour per day right now but that is because I enjoy it. It's like a hobby for me. If I would stop trading and just revert back to pure "buy and hold" then I'm sure I could manage with an hour or two per month. In fact a couple of years ago I was working in a remote setting and I often went 3 months without even looking at my investments.
So the start takes time but after that it's really up to you. You could just build a portfolio out of 10 or 15 solid companies and split the money evenly between them. If it's a pure buy & hold strategy with stable companies in it, I'd say you'll be ok if you can spend one or two evenings every 3 months to quickly go through the quarterly reports.
I can somehow relate to your situations. I've always stayed away from real estate (even though it interests me very much) because it takes time and more importantly, you don't get to choose when and where. With stocks you can do everything at 3am if you feel like it. Or you can push back reading that quarterly report by a week if you don't have the time. And more importantly, all you need is a laptop and internet connection, your physical location makes no difference.
Getting started with investing takes time. You need to figure out a strategy for you: just stocks or also funds? Bonds? Which sectors? What sector / geographical diversification etc. How do the taxes go if you buy from abroad? You probably want to build some basic spreadsheets so you can compare different companies just so you can somehow define a list of which ones you want to look deeper into. You need to spend hours and hours reading through those financial reports so you get an idea of how each of these companies is doing, how it works, etc. Probably quite a bit of time reading different news websites, seeking alpha etc to get a better idea of what might be in the future for the company.
It's worth it to spend the time on figuring out what you want and how to accomplish that. But after the strategy is done then it can go pretty much to "buy and forget about it". Maybe once in a while you will want to take a look at a new company or re-evaluate one that you already have but that's relatively easy since you already know quite a bit about the company.
I spend maybe an hour per day right now but that is because I enjoy it. It's like a hobby for me. If I would stop trading and just revert back to pure "buy and hold" then I'm sure I could manage with an hour or two per month. In fact a couple of years ago I was working in a remote setting and I often went 3 months without even looking at my investments.
So the start takes time but after that it's really up to you. You could just build a portfolio out of 10 or 15 solid companies and split the money evenly between them. If it's a pure buy & hold strategy with stable companies in it, I'd say you'll be ok if you can spend one or two evenings every 3 months to quickly go through the quarterly reports.