We are facing the last month of a year that has been quite different than what we expected in its beginning due to the COVID crisis. Let’s hope next year is better in terms of health.
Sadly, what has happened cannot be changed, and it seems that the economy will suffer in the next month due to the lesser activity the world has had while being at home trying to avoid infections.
We think it is always a good time to change some behaviours and try to improve, so here we go with our New Year’s Financial Propositions for 2021.
Get educated.
If there is a good tip to improve your financial behaviour, it is to start your own financial education.
Depending on your current knowledge about financial topics, there are many different good sources. Here we give you just some examples:
Basic: https://www.khanacademy.org/economics-finance-domain – Khan Academy is an awesome source for those who do not know much about the economy and finances and want to start. The site is thought to serve children and teenagers, so it is very engaging; and at the same time, the content is of high quality.
Medium: Once things get more complicated, books are the best source of information. There are two books that we think give a high value to their readers: Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki and The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham.
Advanced: If you already know some things about stocks and have even tried your luck, it is time to stop trusting luck and start having a method. For that, we always recommend Stan Weinstein’s Secrets for Profiting in Bull and Bear Markets.
Plan your savings.
Having the intent of saving money is not enough. If you are like most people, you need a plan because it will help you to become aware and get motivated about what you need to achieve.
Therefore, if you do not have a plan yet, your best investment may be a notebook to do it. We say a notebook because it is good to write it out by hand, and you have access to it at any moment without needing to turn on the computer.
By the way, the best way of saving is to set an automated bank transfer to your savings account at the beginning of each month.
Cut some costs.
Do you have some free time during the holidays? It is a good time to check how much you are paying for insurance. Inform yourself about deals in the market, take note of the dates in which your insurance ends, and once that time come, you will be ready to renew them or change them to another company that offers the same benefits at a cheaper price.
It is also a good idea to cancel some old subscriptions that you do not use anymore whether they are a newspaper, a magazine, a TV channel…anything that you are not using but paying for does not make any sense.
Diversify.
If you are already saving and investing, check your portfolio to see if you are overexposed to a particular sector or geographic area.
Nowadays, there are many options to diversify your portfolio geographically. Take a look at options that allow you to invest in crowdlending. Many of them are based on Estonia and include companies working in many European countries.
ETFs are also an interesting option that allow you to invest in other countries’ indexes or even in more than one country. For example, there are ETFs to invest in Asian economies, Eastern Europe, Latam, etc.
To start your trading journey in the new year contact us now.