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4 Key Tips for Investing in Volatile Markets

  June 30, 2020  |    #Make Money

Should you be investing in volatile markets?

When the Coronavirus triggered a stock market crash, a lot of investors panicked. Others saw the dip as an opportunity to buy. So, what if you want to invest, but you don’t want to live on an emotional roller coaster? Here’s how to invest in volatile markets. Plus, get our Super Simple Investing Guide here.

Hear Stephanie and Gillian’s tips for investing in volatile markets:

How to invest in a volatile market

Stephanie and Gillian are the Canadian expat couple behind Our Freedom Years, a blog that follows their path to financial independence and early retirement. Experts in DIY investing, they gave up their corporate careers in October of 2019 for a life of slow travel. Stephanie and Gillian also share their adventures (and money advice) on the Our Freedom Years YouTube channel.

On this episode of Queer Money®, Stephanie and Gillian join us to explain what inspired them to pursue early retirement and describe the role investing played in achieving financial independence. They discuss the creative ways they saved money (without feeling deprived) and walk us through their four principles of investing. Listen in for insight on developing a strategy that takes the emotion out of investing and learn how to get started on your own journey to financial freedom!

Topics covered on investing in volatile markets

What inspired Stephanie and Gillian to pursue early retirement

  • ‘Made it’ by society’s standards but still not fulfilled
  • Seeing examples of others living interesting lives

The role investing played in allowing Stephanie and Gillian to retire early

  • Already saving for retirement but FIRE inspired more discipline
  • Tracking spending led to more saving, investing accelerated process

Stephanie and Gillian’s advice for saving without feeling deprived

  • Substitute expensive nights out with alternatives (e.g.: dinner party)
  • Conduct one-month experiments to decide what you really value

Stephanie and Gillian’s four principles of investing

  1. DIY investors, accountable for own financial literacy
  2. Buy-and-hold approach
  3. Regular contributions (buy equities every month)
  4. Diversify via investing tiny slices of global market

Get our 10 steps for super-simple investing:

Then, download our Super-Simple Investing Guide here.

The two types of investments in Stephanie and Gillian’s portfolio

  • Equities (limited to one low-cost index fund)
  • Fixed-income investments in syndicated mortgages

Stephanie and Gillian’s advice on the first steps to financial independence

  • Start investment education with JL Collins’ Stock Series
  • Best first step to money management = track spending

Connect with Stephanie & Gillian

Don’t even look at the market because that just makes it difficult. It’s about making those regular contributions, knowing that over time that the market is going to go up. - Gillian of Our Freedom YearsClick To Tweet

Resources for investing in volatile markets

Blooom

Get investment help from Blooom. Your investment options in company-sponsored retirement plans are often limited but even then, it can be hard to pick and manage the investments that are right for you because there are so many things to consider.

Don’t worry about it! Let Blooom worry about it for you – you just supervise.

Let Blooom do a 401(k), 403(b) or other company-sponsored retirement plan analysis for you, then do the research and provide you truly unbiased advice to build a portfolio that best suits your short- and long-term retirement goals based on the investments that are available to you in your employer plan.

Get your FREE Blooom analysis by clicking here.

If you have a Traditional or Roth IRA at either Vanguard, Fidelity or Charles Schwab, it can help you manage those accounts, too.

If you’re concerned about the current market volatility and its effects on your 401(k), 403(b), Blooom as three special O’s to help you with your investing during these turbulent times that you can see here.

Blooom Video

M1 Finance

If you’re a go-it-alone, independent investor, open an account with M1 Finance – it’s free for retirement accounts with a minimum of $500 that you can access by clicking here.

M1 Finance is an incredibly flexible investing automation platform and great for individuals who are comfortable managing pre-built and customized Exchange Trade Funds (ETF)-based portfolios (see below), though they can model pre-built portfolios by Wall Street experts and robo-advised models.

• Trading is free
• There are no asset under management (AUM) fees
• There are no account fees (for brokerage accounts with a minimum of $100 and retirement accounts with a minimum of $500)

M1 Finance also allows for socially responsible investing, which is huge for the queer community.

Start investing with M1 Finance by clicking this link.

Acorns

Think you’re too broke to invest for retirement? You’re not; there’s always a way, and that way is investing through Acorns here!

With its spare change savings tool and cash-back rewards, Acorns lets account owners invest in taxable and, for your purposes here, retirement accounts using spare or loose change. It’s a great way to get started with investing, especially when you think you have no money to invest.

Let Acorns get you on this simple path by clicking this link.

More resources for investing in volatile markets

Note: This article contains affiliate links, meaning we’ll receive payment at no cost to you if you buy through these links. We only recommend products we use or thoroughly vet and would recommend to our moms.  Buying too many of these is how you live fabulously broke. To live fabulously with financial security, start here.

3 responses to “4 Key Tips for Investing in Volatile Markets

  1. Thanks for having us on Queer Money! It was great to share our perspective on investing and dig into the details of the strategy that got us to financial independence. The toughest challenge for all of us investors during rocky times is to simply maintain course and not let our emotions take over. Having a clear strategy makes that a little easier.

    1. Thank you for coming on the show and sharing your wisdom with our listeners. We and our listeners appreciate it!

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