If I Started Investing From Scratch Again, I’d Do This

You might be shocked to hear this, but I’m actually not the youngest YouTuber out there. I’ve been through a lot in my life and made millions in the process. However, if I had the chance to start investing all over again, I’d do things a little bit differently. So, if you can follow all five of these steps, then you’ll be well ahead of me when you get to my age.

Step 1: Adjust Your Risk Tolerance

In hindsight, I realized that I may not have taken as many risks as I could have during my younger years. The reality is that in your 20s, you typically have more time than money. This means that any risks you take have minimal downsides, compared to those that have families and a mortgage. This is the time to build your empire, so being scared of taking risks is actually the most dangerous thing of all, as it means you’ll fall short of your full potential.

Of course, you should do everything in your power to swing the odds in your favor. However, you won’t be able to eliminate risk entirely if you want to become wealthy. There are still going to be some risk in every opportunity, as nothing good ever comes easy. When times are hard, people are much more likely to let that little bit of doubt get inside their head and talk them out of whatever they want to do. I’ve seen countless friends say they’re going to quit their job to start a business, but they never make that leap because they don’t want to risk their comfortable income.

When I’m judging whether or not to make an investment, I compare the potential risk with the opportunity cost of not taking that risk. Opportunity cost is what you give up when you choose one option over another. Thinking about this helps you make better decisions about how you use your resources. I’m not saying I always make the right decisions, but on average, I’ve come out profitable when I’ve used this tactic. And I also never want the thought of “what could have been” eating away at me. So, the best way for you to grow your wealth is to take calculated risk with your money and use that time to grow your wealth faster than everyone else.

Step 2: Set It and Forget It

I definitely should have automated my investments a lot sooner, as it forces you to prioritize your investments as the money is taken before you can spend it. This is when you arrange to have a fixed amount of money taken out of your paycheck or bank account every month and put into a predetermined investment. Investing $100 in an S&P 500 index fund is a good example of this. This will allow your wealth to compound over the years without you ever having to really think about it.

This is a very straightforward process. First, determine how much money you want to save and from which account. Then go to an investment app and look for an automatic investment option and choose how you want to invest. They’ll do all the paperwork, once you sign off on the bottom line, the automated magic begins.

In my experience, the majority of people that lose money when investing waste their time trying to pick the right stock at the right time. And if you’ve been watching my channel long enough, you’ll already know that it’s not easy to time the market. For me, investing is all about growing your money over the long-term. ETFs allow you to invest in an entire market quickly and in a single transaction by tracking the performance of an index. You can choose to invest in specific regions like the top 500 companies in America with the S&P 500, the entire stock market, or even specific sectors like tech.

Step 3: Avoid Temptation

I understand why people were drawn into the crazy crypto investments a couple of years ago. As this was similar to penny stocks back in my day. When there’s a craze like this happening, lots of people feel like if they don’t invest, they’ll lose out on an amazing opportunity. So they start investing in things without fully understanding them. This has to be one of the most risky things that you could ever do, and it’s probably the biggest investing mistake I see people making.

I speak from experience. I made a few lucky investments in penny stocks when I was younger. And had I continued on that path, I would have lost everything. To be more exact, I had the opportunity to invest in a big group with a couple of billionaire friends. Everything they touched seemed to turn to gold. I can’t reveal all the details here, but they had investments in fashion, retail, and big banks everywhere. I didn’t really understand how they were seeing such amazing returns of over 25% every year. So I passed on the opportunity, as it seemed too good to be true. Had I invested $50,000, a year later I would have lost over $300,000, because they were leveraging every investment by six times, which led to this whole operation going bankrupt. It’s a good lesson to learn though, because I would have previously thought that the amount that I’d invested would have been the maximum that I could have lost. I always think the best tool I’ve got is my gut. You can usually tell if something feels right. Most of the time I can, but I always like to top this up with some extra research as well.

The other temptation to avoid at all cost is debt. I fell into the equivalent of $20,000 worth of debt in my younger days and lost so many years of possible wealth building. The ones to really look out for are payday loans. Payday loan companies are like predators. They see people wanting to keep up with their friends’ lifestyles on Instagram, and they advertise to them non-stop on Facebook, billboards, and newspapers, preying on their insecurities and offering them quick money. Taking out one loan could lead you down a road of multiple months of debt, which is really, really hard to escape and can completely destroy your investing journey.

Step 4: Learn a High-Income Skill

When I first started investing, I thought I could simply put my money away every single month and continue with my regular day job and become rich. However, I soon realized that I wanted to become wealthy while I was still young, not wait until I was older to finally reap the benefits of my investments. That’s why it’s so important to learn some kind of high-income skill that can be turned into a profitable side hustle.

One of my side hustles was teaching people to fly radio-controlled helicopters. I developed a skill that not many people could master, so I charged people to pass on that skill. The money I earned was in addition to what I needed for my normal expenses, so it became money that I could easily invest. It’s essential to have another stream of income, and a side hustle is a really great way to do that. Now, if you lose your main job, you still have a source of income to invest gradually, and it can prevent you from falling into bad debt. It might seem impossible to start a side hustle when things are difficult, but if you look hard enough, there are online businesses that are booming, such as selling digital products and affiliate marketing. Here’s an idea: look at what you do in your normal job. Can you transfer this to a side hustle? It doesn’t matter what you do, from an electrician to a forklift driver. You can find a way to turn it into a side hustle.

Step 5: Invest in Your Lifestyle

When you come from nothing, it can be very hard spending money on yourself. As you know how hard that money was to earn. This is something I’m only recently getting over, as I’ve always tried to save money, rather than spending a little bit more on a nicer experience or product. My son Curtis knows how hard it is to make money, as he has built his own multi-million dollar business. But also spends a considerable amount on traveling and improving his lifestyle. He’s recently kitted out his home gym, regularly flies first class, and just bought a new fancy standing desk with a treadmill. A few years ago, I would have thought that was an extravagant expense. But now, I do think it’s important for you to level up your lifestyle as you start earning more.

Let me take you back to when I was a carpenter’s apprentice. We had to buy all our own hand tools and they were very expensive. However, I found a cheaper place down the market to buy my tools. I thought how great it was, a hammer’s a hammer, a chisel’s a chisel. What difference could there be? And these were better than half price. I bought a bunch of these tools and I took them back to work. But to my dismay, the hammer shaft bent almost immediately. The chisels didn’t stay sharp for more than a minute, and the screwdrivers, they were only good for opening cans of paint. So I ended up wasting all that money and still having to go out and buy the quality tools, which I should have bought in the first place. And I still use those to this day. So, if you don’t spend enough money on good quality products, then it could end up actually costing you more in the long term.

Living a better life changes you as a person and makes you more comfortable socializing with high-net-worth people. As you don’t feel like a fraud. Spending less, of course, is a good idea in some situations, like not spending too much money on takeaway food or shopping around for the best groceries. However, trying to cut costs on everything can actually be a bit of a money trap.