These mini-money guides are based on the practical money book "You're Not Broke You're Pre-Rich" by Emilie Bellet.

It was a blessing and a curse to be working at Lehman Brothers in 2008, the same year the bank went bust. Although it was a stressful time, the experience taught me the valuable lesson of how stock prices can fall from £££ to zero in a few seconds. The market crash continued for months to come, and many people lost their savings, their pensions, and their houses. We came out of that era thinking, was anything safe anymore.

The truth is that there is no cast-iron guarantee when it comes to investing; there are just some simple and sensible rules. And as long as you only invest as much money as you can ‘afford’ to lose, stick it in a diversified portfolio and be really patient, then you’re already miles ahead of many other investors who blindly choose one stock and panic sell their holdings when the market drops a week later.

There are quite a few myths floating around about investing. If you do it correctly, investing is nothing like gambling. It’s not a game - it’s a way to secure your future. But investing doesn’t have to be complicated, and it’s definitely not just for rich people (even if the investors we’ve heard of, like Warren Buffett, are super wealthy). Some apps let you invest for as little as £1, or start an ISA with £25. Investing is simply a way to beat inflation and benefit from compound interest, as we discussed in the last chapter. 

Ask yourself some questions. Do you know why you are investing and what you want to achieve? Are you comfortable with the fact that you may lose money? Can you handle very volatile markets or would you prefer something more stable? Remember that the higher the potential return, the more risk you have to accept. 

So how do you actually get started? (The good news is if you have a workplace pension, you’re already an investor!).

The main two types of securities you can invest in are stocks and bonds, which we will go into in more detail. Investors can combine a range of shares and bonds to create a portfolio. 

The more diversified the portfolio the better, as it means all our eggs are not in the same basket. But instead of doing this yourself, you can buy a diversified fund - a pool of money that is run by a fund manager. You will pay the manager an annual charge, but it’s probably a lot less than you’d rack up trading stocks and bonds yourself. And don’t underestimate the work involved - between analysing what to invest in, trading and managing risk, there’s a reason being a fund manager is a full-time job. 

The main way you can access a fund is on a platform, which also costs an annual fee. I personally enjoy ready-made portfolios (the premium service offered by some investment platforms) and this is how I invested initially: AJ Bell, Hargreaves, Vanguard, etc. offer this service.

If you use an app like Moneybox or Nutmeg - otherwise known as a ‘robo adviser’ - to invest in a portfolio of funds, you pay a fee in the form of a % of the amount of money you invest with them. 

So, even if you have just £25 a month to spare (and you know that’s just a couple of weeks of Starbucks), there’s no time like the present to get started in investing. It does not have to be perfect the first time, or the second or the third for that matter. But you’ll get better at it and you will find what works for you. 

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If you want to learn more about the book and see a few photos from the book tour, it’s here. You can order "You're Not Broke, You're Pre-Rich" on Amazon and if you’ve read the book and enjoyed it, I will be forever grateful if you could review it on Amazon or Goodreads.

DISCOVER MORE CONTENT FROM THE BOOK

Chapter 1 – What IS Money?

Chapter 2 – Get Real With Your Money

Chapter 3 – Planning For The Future

Chapter 4 – Own It: Get A Grip On Your Money

Chapter 5 – Asking For More £££

Chapter 6 – Navigating Your Bank Balance

Chapter 7 – How Does Investing Work?

Chapter 8 –  Investing in The ‘Stock Market’

Chapter 9 – Want to Buy a House?

Thank you, Emilie