‘I really should have started that sooner…’, these words have probably chimed in your head. Having the ability to take your time with things can feel like a luxury sometimes, but it should not, because time management is actually a huge part of self-care, and when it comes to money management it is just good practice.
In 2022, The Ascent found that the average American spent just 1.8 minutes a day on financial management. That adds up to 10.5 hours on money management a year, which sounds like a lot, until you realise that’s not even one full day out of all 365 days.
How can you use time (and time management) to help with your investment strategy?
Start investing (yesterday)
If you have read any of our recent articles, you know we are all about building a healthier money mindset, and starting to invest now helps with just that.
The hardest part of starting something new is actually starting it, and investing is no different. Sending your hard-earned cash into the world can – rightfully – be a daunting experience. So why not skip the nervous waiting around and start it today?
When you are in the final stages of preparing your portfolio, your strategy, and your fund, take a teeny amount of money and just… invest it somewhere. Treat it like you are up on a diving board, counting to three, and then jump on two.
By the time you get around to the ‘real’ first investment, you will already have conquered the fear of the unknown and all the stress that comes with a new experience. If you have already invested CHF2, you can use the experience to invest CHF20, CHF200, and one day, much more.
Think (super) long-term
For most of us, investing will be a long-term activity, which can make it easier to put off for the next week over and over again.
Ask yourself:
Do I have long-term plans to work towards?
Why do I put off investing when it can help me achieve my dreams?
One possible answer you might come up with is that the future is, well, very far away. If you’re investing for your retirement, and you’re in your 20s or 30s, you’ve got a while to go before you withdraw that money.
So how do you combat that to start investing? One way is to seriously think about what the long-term means to you. If you’re investing towards retirement, do you know where you want to be at that point in your life? Living in a mortgage-free house? Happily surrounded by grandchildren you love to spoil? Or maybe you want to travel the world on cruise ships year after year after year!
If you can come up with a long-term dream that really excites you, it is much easier to break out of the ‘investment procrastination’ cycle.
To help you get started, we’ve even got our Financial Planning checklist available for you to download today.
Don’t spend your time… invest it!
The final time tip for investing your money can be applied at any stage of your life, whether you’ve got no idea what risk tolerance is, or your friends now call you for investing advice.
This is why it is important to keep investing your time in the process even after you’ve started. Think about the impact that you want your money to have – how can you achieve this? Are these specific companies or values you want to invest in? Or are they ones you want to avoid?
4 tips that will ease you into investing even if you think it is not for you or you have never done it:
- Review your budget and kill all unwanted money wasters such as online subscriptions and online shopping — instead of keeping the money, invest it.
- Quit a nasty habit like smoking and invest the money you have saved from that.
(And if you are more serious about it but do not know where to start):
- Focus on your long-term money, e.g. your voluntary pension contributions such as the pillar 3a in Switzerland, get your hands on one and invest the money.
- Consider talking to a wealth manager or to start an investment mandate.
In a nutshell, we are past an era where investing belongs to wealthy people. Normalise the idea that it is now a part of modern culture that anyone can achieve as a daily or monthly hygiene. As long as you start sooner than later, with a longer-term mentality, and dedicate your time, you will turn out to thrive. This will change your views and you will soon figure that investing is not as daunting as it seems.
