09-16-2018, 09:27 AM
Good advice. Regularly investing is how the plan comes together long-term. And the early years are very important so the magic of compounding has time to work. Assuming you are young, that $25 you invest this week may be worth over $800 at typical retirement age. It doesn't require highly speculative investments for that to be not only possible, but probable.
When you make that first speculative play, make is very small and consider it "tuition" in an course in how not to invest. If you happen to "win" the trade, that doesn't make you smart, it just makes you lucky. Don't get greedy and double down. Small bets until you finally lose most of a position. Only then do you know what it feels like. I wish I had followed this advice when I first started investing. Instead I waited until the 1990's and lost some real money.
When you make that first speculative play, make is very small and consider it "tuition" in an course in how not to invest. If you happen to "win" the trade, that doesn't make you smart, it just makes you lucky. Don't get greedy and double down. Small bets until you finally lose most of a position. Only then do you know what it feels like. I wish I had followed this advice when I first started investing. Instead I waited until the 1990's and lost some real money.