
<p>It is easier for people to save than invest because savings have virtually no risk and are usually short-term. Unlike investing which carries some risk and should be long-term. Also, with savings, you just put money away but investing means putting money <strong>in </strong>something and that something requires thought. You want to know that whatever is invested in is healthy and can grow. So, investing is rightfully more difficult than saving which is why a lot of people delay it or think they need to hit certain financial milestones before they start investing. Our advice is to start immediately.</p>



<h3><strong>Why You Should Start Investing Now</strong></h3>



<p>The rewards when you start investing early far outweigh the benefits of starting later because of the powerful force that is compound interest. </p>



<p>People who <a href="https://rise.capital/blog/finance/the-goal-of-investing/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">invest </a>at a young age are typically more likely to grow their wealth, become financially independent and reach retirement sooner than those who don&#8217;t. The first step in your journey to investing should be a strong financial education. It is never wise to make investments in financial products you do not understand or cannot explain.</p>



<p>Say there are two individuals who started working at age 20 and retired at 60; person A starts investing $500 right from her first paycheck while person B decides to hold on for ten years, investing $500 monthly from age 30.</p>



<p>At retirement, person A will have $2.8 million at an annual compounding rate of 10% thanks to a 10-year headstart while person B will have $1million. There’s an almost $2million difference in their investment value despite the fact that there’s only a $60,000 difference in capital invested. That’s the power of starting immediately.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><a href="rise.capital"><img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1134/1*qeuR5mCEFs7ujnmE0kYrvQ.png" alt="table showing the difference in returns from the investment of Person A and Person B, depending on when they start investing"/></a><figcaption>Amount invested for Person A and Person B over their career</figcaption></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><a href="rise.capital"><img src="https://miro.medium.com/max/1446/0*U3nUr-SBvNuhkGw5" alt="A graphical representation of the difference time taken to start investing can make"/></a><figcaption>The difference time taken to start investing can make</figcaption></figure>



<p>With investing, it’s not just the act but the habit you are building along the way. Plus, postponing it shortchanges you in the long run. The sooner you invest and maximise the power of compounding, the more your money grows. No amount is too small to start, that’s why at <a href="http://rise.capital">Rise</a>, you can begin with $10.</p>



<p>We understand that investing can be daunting for newbies and experts alike because of how unpredictable the market is. With Rise, it doesn’t have to be. We don’t let you figure things out by yourself, instead, we invest and manage your money in a global portfolio of dollar investments.</p>



<p>Start investing today at&nbsp;<a href="http://risecapital.com/">rise.capital</a>.</p>



<p><em>Our telegram community surrounds you with others who can help you along your financial journey with tips, support, advice and learning. Join the&nbsp;</em><a href="https://t.me/joinchat/DTGhd0cfd_R5q8w_dC1KHQ"><em>community</em></a></p>


When should I start investing?


<p>Hello Riser,<br>Please don&#8217;t be alarmed by the recent circular from the SEC about investment platforms trading in securities listed in foreign markets. Fintech is still in its nascent stages in Nigeria and it is the job of the SEC to protect public investors just as it is our duty to help you invest <strong>legally and safely</strong>. Rise has always made sure that we are in full compliance with all regulatory requirements and the recent announcement from the SEC is no exception. </p>



<p>We do not enable the direct trading of stocks by individuals. Still, we are in touch with all the relevant stakeholders to ensure that we continue to stay on the right side of regulations. Be assured that your investments in Rise are secure and safe and that we will continue to be proactive about regulations and compliance. </p>



<p>Thank you for your support<br><strong>The Rise Team</strong></p>


About the latest SEC circular…


<h2>Tell me, what do you do for a living?&nbsp;</h2>



<p>I run an events management business in Northern Nigeria. I’m not a civil servant. For me, that means there’s no guarantee that at the end of the month, I’ll get paid, or that when I retire, I’ll get a pension. I invest to save for my later years.&nbsp;</p>



<h2>Tell me about when you knew that your approach to finances has to change.&nbsp;</h2>



<p>I put money in one of my bank accounts, just because I didn’t want to touch it. And they just kept deducting the money until the point that it went to -₦106. It was like I was owing them. And I started wondering, I’m trying to save money, why am I the one owing? That was when I decided to stop using them (for saving).</p>



<p>Savings is for you to keep what you have, not for it to be taken away from you.&nbsp;</p>



<h3>That is profound. Do you remember the first time you ever saved money?&nbsp;</h3>



<p>That’s a long time ago. I can’t even remember, but the first thing I might even call an investment is when I was selling Okrika clothes.&nbsp;</p>



<h3>Interesting</h3>



<p>Yes, we’ll buy and then sell them. I was a nurse at the time in a private hospital – my salary was 280. This was in my first year of marriage, and I was 24, haha. After my first child, I stopped, went to a school to learn dressmaking, and opened a small fashion house, like a shop. Then it grew to a two-bedroom apartment. It grew to a small boutique, then I gradually started developing an interest in the events business. By 2006, I shut down my other businesses and focused on events.</p>



<h3>Wow. You must be really proud of how far you’ve come.&nbsp;</h3>



<p>Yes!</p>



<h3>How do you approach investing today?&nbsp;</h3>



<p>Because I’m investing for my later life, I don’t want to be investing in anything Nigerian currency, because, in this country, one never knows. So when the opportunity came with <a href="https://rise.capital/">Risevest,</a> I just grabbed it. </p>



<h3>What’s your dream investment?&nbsp;</h3>



<p>I want to invest in properties – it’s one area I’m currently looking at. I like properties because it doesn’t need too much stress to maintain it. So I’ll like to invest in <a href="https://rise.capital/blog/how-real-estate-returns-work-on-rise">real estate</a> by God’s grace. </p>



<h3>What’s the biggest loss you’ve made on investing?&nbsp;</h3>



<p>5 million. And that’s because I just kept it in the bank and I was spending it. But if I had put it inside Risevest, I won’t have been able to touch it anyhow.  </p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" width="1024" height="512" src="https://money.rise.capital/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/blog-banner-copy-5-210610-1024x512.png" alt="Risevest invest" class="wp-image-929" srcset="https://money.rise.capital/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/blog-banner-copy-5-210610-1024x512.png 1024w, https://money.rise.capital/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/blog-banner-copy-5-210610-300x150.png 300w, https://money.rise.capital/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/blog-banner-copy-5-210610-768x384.png 768w, https://money.rise.capital/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/blog-banner-copy-5-210610-1536x768.png 1536w, https://money.rise.capital/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/blog-banner-copy-5-210610-2048x1024.png 2048w, https://money.rise.capital/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/blog-banner-copy-5-210610-1568x784.png 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure>



<h3>How would you advise anyone that is about to start investing today?&nbsp;</h3>



<p>It’s very important to understand what works for you. You also need to understand that investing is about spending money. You’re spending money so that your investment will give you a profit. Investment is not something you put in money now and start expecting returns immediately.</p>



<p>When I first started using Risevest, the money would have been something I’ll use to buy things for Owambe. But now I look at that money now, and I’m shocked.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<h3>How likely are you to tell your friends to try Risevest?&nbsp;</h3>



<p>10/10. I always tell people about <a href="https://rise.capital/">Rise.</a> I just tell them, “see how much I started with, and look at how much I have now.” Any small money I’m not spending, I just put it there now. It just gives me returns without stress. </p>



<h3>That’s awesome. Thank you!</h3>



<p>God bless you, keep rising.</p>


I Don’t Want To Be Investing In Anything Nigerian currency. My Name Is Vivian, And This Is How I Make My #MoneyRise


<h2>When people ask you what do you do, what do you tell them?</h2>



<p>I am a Medical Laboratory Scientist. Well, still a student. And I am a writer.</p>



<h2>What does financial wealth mean to you?</h2>



<p>It&#8217;s being able to support myself financially without having to worry about how I&#8217;ll manage in the next couple of weeks or days.</p>



<h2>How did you start investing?</h2>



<p>Technically, I started since I was young – like way young. My dad is an economist and a stockbroker, and my mum is an accountant. Every time I had a Christmas cash gift, they&#8217;ll always ask me if I want to &#8220;invest&#8221; the money in stocks. I didn&#8217;t understand it fully then, but I knew I&#8217;d have my money back later, so I always agreed.</p>



<p>But by myself, I started investing about three years ago. I&#8217;d ask my dad if I could invest in Nigerian stocks then (now I don&#8217;t even know where my money is. But when I started using Piggyvest about two years ago, I used the Investify options to get myself into it.</p>



<h2>What happened to the Nigerian stocks you invested in?</h2>



<p>To be honest, I&#8217;m not sure. I’m not as financially educated as my parents when it comes to the stock market, so I just let my dad handle everything related to that. Considering how many times I&#8217;ve heard that the stock market has crashed ehn, I don&#8217;t know what would have happened to it. But I&#8217;m sure if I ask my Dad, he&#8217;ll tell me</p>



<h2>How do you approach investing today?</h2>



<p>I&#8217;m still learning about investing better, but I&#8217;m always looking to diversify my investments. The build wealth plan on Rise said I&#8217;m a middle-risk investor. I try to put my fingers in everything now. Stocks, Eurobonds, Real estate, agriculture.&nbsp;</p>



<p>I keep one thing in mind sha, whatever I&#8217;m investing in is going to be long term.</p>



<h2>Break down your investment stack for me</h2>



<p>I use Rise mostly, because of the dollar investment. Recently, I think CBN <a href="https://www.financialwatchngr.com/2021/06/04/cbn-devalues-naira-adopts-ie-as-official-exchange-rate/">devalued </a>the naira. Anything that moves me out of naira is gold</p>



<p>I use piggyvest mainly to save. I hardly receive money in my normal account again. Everything goes to my piggy flex account. That way, no useless bank charges, atm charges, service charges. They collect charges for everything.</p>



<p>I use Thrive Agric for agro investments. I love agriculture. And I think it&#8217;s an industry that everyone should actually look into. I mean, we are all going to need food yunno.</p>



<p>Then I use Realvest because of their real estate plans. I read their brochure and did due diligence before investing.&nbsp; I don&#8217;t usually keep up with it tho, compared to the others. But my goal is to buy a home for my mum one day.&nbsp;</p>



<h2>What is the investing hill you are willing to die on?</h2>



<p>If I don&#8217;t understand it, I&#8217;m not doing it. There are many scams these days, and small me, I&#8217;ve fallen into a few. Now, if I don&#8217;t understand how the money is being made, where my money is going and what happens in the company if they are insured or secured, I&#8217;m not going to start it.</p>



<p>Also, flee from quick money-making.&nbsp; All those bring x, in 20 days, you&#8217;ll have 150% ROI.</p>



<h2>You’ve fallen for a few scams?</h2>



<p>Well, two different times</p>



<h2>Want to share?</h2>



<p>It&#8217;s funny because now that I think back, I&#8217;m like omooo.I think the first time was three years ago. I was in 300-level then. I don&#8217;t know how I got into the scam, but they had this whole seminar thing: the whole presentation package and whatnot. I Sha remember the ROI was 125% in a couple of months. I had just learnt what ROI meant and how annual returns worked and all that, so it looked juicy. That&#8217;s how half of my savings went.&nbsp;</p>



<p>The second time, thank God it was small money I could live without, but it was still money. And it was very recent sef—one of these forex Tradera things. My friend told me about how they paid her on time. She asked for some money sha to add up to what she&#8217;ll put the next time. The whole thing disappeared. It wasn&#8217;t my investment, but my money was in it, and I was angry. Till today, it&#8217;s stories about how they&#8217;ll refund their capital back</p>



<h2>What is your wildest gain since you started investing?</h2>



<p>Well, I&#8217;m not entirely sure. I think a 34% gain sometime last year. It was on one of my plans in Thrive Agric.</p>



<p>But the USA stock market is looking excellent now. I made sure to put more money into it when it was all red. And now that it&#8217;s rising, I&#8217;m happy</p>



<h2>Have you made any loss since you started investing?</h2>



<p>Well, minus the occasional dips. Nope.</p>



<h2>So what’s the secret to not losing money?</h2>



<p>I think it&#8217;s about understanding the market. There was a time there was a massive stock crash around 2014. I asked my dad why he didn&#8217;t remove the money he had then, and he was like, the market will rise.</p>



<p>But it always stuck with me then. Anytime there is a market dip, if it&#8217;s a good investment, it&#8217;ll rise..</p>



<h2>What’s the hardest decision you’ve had to make since you started investing</h2>



<p>Not overspending. I love spending money (I don&#8217;t know if there are people who don&#8217;t love it), but every occasion is an opportunity to spend money for me. So having to discipline myself each time is hard.</p>



<h2>What do you wish you had known before making your first investment?</h2>



<p>I guess I wish I understood investments earlier. They don&#8217;t teach it in schools, and the little knowledge on economics taught in schools is pretty sad.</p>



<p>I wish I knew dollar-based investments were possible. I mean, the naira is doing terribly (no offence) now, and inflation rates are crazy, so if I knew about escaping the naira earlier, it’d have helped.</p>



<h2>What does a dream investment look like to you?</h2>



<p>Do you know when Michael B Jordan gifted Lori shares for her birthday?? That&#8217;s it. Shares in maybe Tesla, or Amazon. And maybe Dangote shares too since Baba is cashing out.</p>



<h2>How does this investment compare with your reality?</h2>



<p>We&#8217;re getting there. I mean it&#8217;s a dream, but yeah, we&#8217;ll get there</p>



<h2>How do you feel about your current position generally?</h2>



<p>I&#8217;m happy with it, I could definitely be doing more yh, but I try not to rush myself and compare myself with others. it&#8217;s also a plus that I started pretty early, at 18.</p>



<h2>What will you tell a beginner about investment?</h2>



<p>The first thing I&#8217;ll say is to read up about it. And ask questions. A lot of questions. Do research, look for resources and all that.</p>



<p>Then just start. With as little as you have.. once you start procrastinating, it&#8217;ll be harder to start.</p>



<p>That&#8217;s why I love <a href="https://rise.capital/">Rise.</a> Resources are available to learn from, and it&#8217;s easy to start with very little.</p>


If I Don’t Understand It, I’m not Doing it. My Name Is Yinka And This Is How I Make My #MoneyRise


<h2>When people ask you what do you do, what do you tell them?</h2>



<p>I am a Product Manager; I build software products for organisations. I am also an Investment Enthusiast.</p>



<h2>What does financial wealth mean to you?</h2>



<p>Time control. The freedom to control my time and not be constrained in pursuing whatever I want to do due to lack of money.</p>



<h2>How did you start investing?</h2>



<p>I started in 2017 after gaining some level of understanding about money. Then, I started being deliberate about what investment options were out there that could grow my money.&nbsp;</p>



<h2>What was your first investment, and how did it go?</h2>



<p>My first investment was investing in an Agric produce business. It went well at the end of the day. I learnt a lot that formed some of the guidelines I have when investing.&nbsp;</p>



<h2>What investment options were out there in 2017?</h2>



<p>There were few available that appealed to me, and treasury bills was a thing back then (when the rates were favourable). So I went for that and the Agric business I mentioned earlier. Nairaland also helped a lot in my search.</p>



<h2>How do you approach investing today?</h2>



<p>Well, I will say I am pretty principled when picking my investments. I am also an aggressive investor. Due to my age, I have enough time to accumulate wealth and allow compounding work for me. Firstly, I stay off <a href="https://money.rise.capital/stocks/shine-your-eyes-how-to-identify-fraud-investment-schemes/">Ponzi schemes</a>. Next, I always look for opportunities that can beat the prevailing inflation rate of the Naira. This is one of the investment guidelines I have.</p>



<h2>Break down your investment stack for me</h2>



<p>Currently, that would be: Foreign stocks, crypto, Venture Capital Investments and a Real Estate fund.</p>



<h2>What platforms&nbsp; do you use to invest</h2>



<p>Trading 212, Binance and <a href="https://rise.capital/">Risevest</a>.&nbsp;</p>



<h2>What Portfolio do you have with Risevest?&nbsp;</h2>



<p>Real Estate. It gives me that balance I need for my aggressive portfolio </p>



<figure class="wp-block-gallery columns-1 is-cropped"><ul class="blocks-gallery-grid"><li class="blocks-gallery-item"><figure><img loading="lazy" width="1024" height="512" src="https://money.rise.capital/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/blog-banner-copy-5-210610-1024x512.png" alt="Risevest invest" data-id="929" data-full-url="https://money.rise.capital/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/blog-banner-copy-5-210610.png" data-link="https://money.rise.capital/?attachment_id=929" class="wp-image-929" srcset="https://money.rise.capital/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/blog-banner-copy-5-210610-1024x512.png 1024w, https://money.rise.capital/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/blog-banner-copy-5-210610-300x150.png 300w, https://money.rise.capital/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/blog-banner-copy-5-210610-768x384.png 768w, https://money.rise.capital/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/blog-banner-copy-5-210610-1536x768.png 1536w, https://money.rise.capital/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/blog-banner-copy-5-210610-2048x1024.png 2048w, https://money.rise.capital/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/blog-banner-copy-5-210610-1568x784.png 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></figure></li></ul><figcaption class="blocks-gallery-caption"><a href="https://rise.capital/">https://rise.capital/</a></figcaption></figure>



<h2>What is the investing hill you are willing to die on?</h2>



<p>If it looks too good to be true, it probably is.</p>



<h2>What is your wildest gain since you started investing?</h2>



<p>Hmm, that was 2020 going into 2021, I made 20x of my investment, on a mixture of different assets. It felt gooooddd.&nbsp;</p>



<h2>Have you made any loss since you started investing?</h2>



<p>Yes, I have.</p>



<p>That will be crypto.&nbsp; The lesson learnt is to do more due diligence and not rush into an opportunity no matter the circumstances. Always approach any investment in a calm state.</p>



<h2>What’s the hardest decision you’ve had to make since you started investing</h2>



<p>Cutting my losses, no one likes to lose money. But if you know you made a bad call on an investment, it&#8217;s better to stop the bleeding early and draw out a plan on how to move forward.</p>



<h2>What do you wish you had known before making your first investment?</h2>



<p>I wish I knew about the financial markets earlier.</p>



<h2>What does a dream investment look like to you?</h2>



<p>Access to investment opportunities across multiple countries.</p>



<h2>How does this investment compare with your reality?</h2>



<p>Still, a long way to go, but I will get there.&nbsp;</p>



<h2>How do you feel about your current position generally?</h2>



<p>Fantastic, I think I am doing well.</p>



<h2>What will you tell a beginner about investment?</h2>



<p>Start early and be deliberate about your wealth journey. The best investment you can make is in yourself by investing in knowledge. Also, you can join investment clubs. It is easier to learn in a community. Join the <a href="https://rise.capital/investment-club">Risevest community,</a> they do a great job in providing free financial education to the community.</p>


I Look For Investment Opportunities That Can Beat The Prevailing Inflation Rate Of The Naira. My Name Is Busola And This Is How I Make My #MoneyRise


<p>Every year, people travel from far and near to attend Berkshire Hathaway annual meetings. There they listen to the wisdom of Buffett and Munger. It’s always so profound how much both usually have to share every year. And the investing community never gets tired of them. For context, saying “people” means an average of 40,000 people from all around the world come to listen to Buffett and Munger talk for at least 4 hours. This year was not an exception.</p>



<p>Instead of listening to the 4 hours long conversation, we want to share six lessons of the most profound takeaways from the meeting. Here’s a sneak-peek into what that number of people usually gather around to listen to.</p>



<h2>1. Don’t bet against America</h2>



<p>Buffett started this year’s session by sharing two insightful statistics. He showed the data of the top 20 companies as of March 2021 and compared it with that of 30 years ago. In a profound turn of events, none of the companies that were on the list 30 years ago are still on the list today. Beyond that, 30 years ago, only 5 US companies were in the top 20. But today, there are 13 of them.</p>



<p>Buffett used the opportunity to emphasise America’s position as the world’s capital for wealth accumulation. Knowing that the US moved from 25% dominance of the top 20 to 65% under 30 years is instructive. As Buffett noted, the economic system in the US powers growth of this nature. It is almost by design that the US will prosper.</p>



<p>Now, this is not an article to glorify the US. What we aim to call your attention to is simple. As a Nigerian, the opportunity for you to have a share of the wealth created in the US in the last 30 years or even further was not available to you. But that opportunity is available to you at your fingertip with Risevest.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><a href="https://rise.capital/"><img loading="lazy" width="1024" height="512" src="https://money.rise.capital/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/blog_banner_copy_3-210610-1024x512.png" alt="risevest, investment buffett" class="wp-image-919" srcset="https://money.rise.capital/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/blog_banner_copy_3-210610-1024x512.png 1024w, https://money.rise.capital/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/blog_banner_copy_3-210610-300x150.png 300w, https://money.rise.capital/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/blog_banner_copy_3-210610-768x384.png 768w, https://money.rise.capital/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/blog_banner_copy_3-210610-1536x768.png 1536w, https://money.rise.capital/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/blog_banner_copy_3-210610-2048x1024.png 2048w, https://money.rise.capital/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/blog_banner_copy_3-210610-1568x784.png 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a></figure>



<h2>2. Buffett and Munger are still living in the house they bought 62 years ago</h2>



<p>This year’s Annual Meeting was held in a different location (Munger’s state). While commenting on that, Buffet mentioned how Munger has been living in the same house he bought 62 years ago. And of course, we know the same is true of Buffett who has been living in the same house for as long as well.</p>



<p>When a lot of people think about wealth, what comes to their mind is the number of things they want to spend on. But wealth is built out of what we don’t spend, not out of what we spend. Munger has more than enough to buy a new house. But the focus of wealth is not in the multitude of houses or material things that one possesses. Rather, it is in how much you didn’t spend but stash in an investment.</p>



<p>Another lesson from this has to do with not replacing items that are not due for replacement. For example, it’s okay to use the latest iPhone if you can afford it. But why make it a goal to always use the latest when you have to squeeze your pocket to do so? Understand what matters to you as you build wealth and focus on it.</p>



<p>Also read: <a href="https://rise.capital/blog/long-term-investing-is-hard-here-are-3-things-to-help-you-make-it-easier">Long-Term Investing is Hard</a></p>



<h2>3. Even Buffett Makes Investment Mistakes</h2>



<p>Everyone investing – new or old – has likely made one mistake or the other on their journey. You might have invested money you shouldn’t invest. You might have invested in what you shouldn’t invest in or any other mistake. Well, we are here to tell you that even Buffett makes mistakes.</p>



<p>Some people questioned why Buffett sold part of his stake in Apple. The Oracle of Omaha admitted that was probably a mistake. &#8220;Charlie in his usual low-key way let me know it was a mistake,&#8221; he added.</p>



<p>You can take solace in the fact even someone of Buffett&#8217;s stature can make the same sort of mistakes that you make. And then move forward with your investing without relenting. Don&#8217;t let past mistakes stop you from investing now that you are better aware.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><a href="https://rise.capital/"><img loading="lazy" width="1024" height="512" src="https://money.rise.capital/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/blog_banner_copy-210610-1-1024x512.png" alt="risevest, investment buffett" class="wp-image-922" srcset="https://money.rise.capital/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/blog_banner_copy-210610-1-1024x512.png 1024w, https://money.rise.capital/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/blog_banner_copy-210610-1-300x150.png 300w, https://money.rise.capital/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/blog_banner_copy-210610-1-768x384.png 768w, https://money.rise.capital/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/blog_banner_copy-210610-1-1536x768.png 1536w, https://money.rise.capital/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/blog_banner_copy-210610-1-2048x1024.png 2048w, https://money.rise.capital/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/blog_banner_copy-210610-1-1568x784.png 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a></figure>



<h2>4. Munger on Bitcoin</h2>



<p>Buffett decided to dodge the question on Bitcoin asked by an attendee. He wanted to “avoid making the hundreds of thousands of viewers who own the cryptocurrency unhappy.” Munger didn&#8217;t hold back though. &#8220;I hate the Bitcoin success,&#8221; Munger said. &#8220;The whole damn development is disgusting and contrary to the interest of civilization.&#8221;</p>



<p>We like to highlight two point from this:</p>



<ul><li>Reminding everyone to be on the side of caution when investing in cryptocurrency.</li></ul>



<ul><li>Telling you that even if you disagree with Charlie Munger, you can still learn from him. That you disagree with someone on a point doesn’t mean you can’t agree with them on another point. And Munger is someone you can learn a tone from.&nbsp;</li></ul>



<h2>5. Buffett and Munger disagree on the S&amp;P 500 vs. Berkshire</h2>



<p>Buffett has often advised investors to keep things simple and invest in an S&amp;P 500 index fund. &#8220;I&#8217;ve never recommended Berkshire to anybody,&#8221; Buffett said.</p>



<p>Munger has a different opinion. &#8220;I personally prefer holding Berkshire to holding the market,&#8221; he said, arguing that Berkshire&#8217;s set of businesses and investments are in his view &#8220;better than the average&#8221; across the stock market.</p>



<p>These two individuals hold two different views and they still respect each other.&nbsp; And have even conducted business together for this long.</p>



<p>You can have a different investment philosophy with someone, it doesn’t mean you conflict with that person. Just do what works for you.</p>



<h2>6. On Robinhood and Stock Trading Apps</h2>



<p>Buffett said of Robinhood, “the gambling impulse is very strong in people worldwide. And occasionally it gets an enormous shove and conditions lead to this place where more people are entering the casino than are leaving every day.&#8221; Buffett added, “and it creates its own reality for a while and nobody tells you when the clock’s going to strike 12 and it all turns to pumpkins and mice.&#8221;</p>



<p>More importantly, Buffett said that &#8220;there&#8217;s nothing illegal about it. There&#8217;s nothing immoral, but I don&#8217;t think you&#8217;d build a society around people doing it.&#8221;</p>



<p>What Buffett is saying here is that many more people have entered the stock market in the recent period. Albeit, with gambling mindset than an investing mindset. The caution here is to know what you are doing, if you gambling, know it as such and if you are investing recognize it for one. When you are making money, it is easy to think that’s how it always is, no that’s not. Markets don’t always go up and individual companies may even be more irrational in their behaviour. Be careful and be aware of what exactly you are doing.</p>


Six Lessons We Learned From Buffett & Munger 2021 Annual Meeting


<p>In investing, learning once is often not enough. The reason is not far-fetched; investing requires agreement between our intellect and our emotions. And while it is easier for our mind to grab all investing concepts at once, our feelings will always find it hard to fall in line. Hence, a constant need for reeducation.</p>



<p>That&#8217;s why we are taking a tour into the mind of some of the legendary investors in this article. We are picking from their mind some of the most important lessons they learned on their journey to share with you. Remember, there&#8217;s a likelihood that you&#8217;ve encountered some of these lessons before. However, there&#8217;s also a high likelihood that you may not have been able to abide by them. And you know what, you are not alone; it happens to the best of us. We panic, we let emotions get in the way, and sometimes, it costs us. But ultimately, we are on a journey to building wealth and ready to learn what is necessary to create wealth.</p>



<h2>Have some stocks in your portfolio</h2>



<p><em>“If you hope to have more money tomorrow than you have today, you&#8217;ve got to put a chunk of your assets into stocks. Sooner or later, a portfolio of stocks or stock mutual funds will turn out to be a lot more valuable than a portfolio of bonds or commercial deposits, or money-market funds.”</em> &#8211; Peter Lynch</p>



<p>Peter Lynch took a look at historical data and realised that despite the seeming risk in the stock market, if you hope to have more money in the future than you have today, you need to invest some of your funds in stocks. That&#8217;s because historically, the stock market has outperformed every known asset class. He compared stocks to alternative assets like fixed income to reach that conclusion. And while fixed income is less risky, the kind of money that some desire can only be made from an investment in stocks.</p>



<p>A nearby example here would be Risevest&#8217;s performance in 2020. Investors in stock make 40.7% return on investment while fixed income investors make only 10%. Of course, it is not guaranteed that the 40% return will persist. However, over a long enough period, stocks tend to outperform the fixed income plan.</p>



<p>So what can you do? It&#8217;s simple, start building up your stock portfolio if you don&#8217;t have one already. And if you have already, make sure you are keeping a long-term view of it. In the short term, expect volatility. Over a long time, though, expect money-making returns.</p>



<h2>With all that you know, have you started investing?</h2>



<p><em>&#8220;In life and business, there are two cardinal sins. The first is to act precipitously without thought, and the second is to not act at all.&#8221;</em> ~ Carl Icahn</p>



<p>Which of these two sins is currently committing? Are you acting without thought or you are not acting all despite all that you know?</p>



<p>Acting without thought, for instance, will mean investing these 3 kinds of money that we said should never be invested. And nothing acting at all will mean despite all that you care enough to spur you to action, you are still not acting at all.</p>



<p>Don&#8217;t commit any of these two sins. Join our community, where you can learn about all things money. Then download the Rise App to start acting today. The time to start is now.</p>



<h2>The best investment returns come from doing nothing.</h2>



<p><em>&#8220;The big money is not in the buying and selling, but in the waiting.&#8221;</em> ~ Charlie Munger</p>



<p>Charlie Munger is always revered for his witty wisdom. Alongside Warren Buffet, he has built a multi-billion dollar business by investing in the most promising companies. And when asked what the secret of successful investing is, he said, &#8220;you make the big money by doing nothing but waiting&#8221;.</p>



<p>You see, it&#8217;s easy to think we can make quick money by timing the market for an entry and exit point. However, the wisdom of Munger says big money is in the waiting, in doing nothing, and in patience.</p>



<h2>We all make mistakes with our investments, but some people repeat the same mistake</h2>



<p><em>&#8220;For every mistake that you learn from you will save thousands of similar mistakes in the future, so if you treat mistakes as learning opportunities that yield rapid improvements you should be excited by them. But if you treat them as bad things, you will make yourself and others miserable, and you won&#8217;t grow.&#8221;</em> ~ Ray Dalio</p>



<p>I&#8217;ve seen many people afraid of making their first investment because they don&#8217;t want to make mistakes. They don&#8217;t want to do it wrong. They want to be right with every act. And because of that, they either delay starting their investing journey or have not even started at all.</p>



<p>One cannot optimize to avoid mistakes all of their lives. One cannot optimize to avoid failures all of their life. One cannot optimize to be right all of the time. Allow yourself some threshold of failure and you will see how quickly you will grow not just in investing but in all areas of life.</p>



<p>How can you apply this in investing? Take a small amount of your money and take the initial step of funding that plan you just created on Risevest. Fund it and watch what happens to it. Your fear will either disappear or be confirmed and you would&#8217;ve learned. An option that is better than waiting for the perfect information before you start. And this applies to any investment you may want to try out as well. That&#8217;s what legendary Ray Dalio wants to teach us.</p>



<h2>You must find a way to make money while you sleep</h2>



<p><em>&#8220;If you don&#8217;t find a way to make money while you sleep, you will work until you die.&#8221; </em>~ Warren Buffett</p>



<p>Why do we invest? Investing is the art of making money while you sleep. With the help of compounding returns, when you invest, over a long enough period, the ROI on your investment will soon outpace the capital that you contributed. If you allow this circle to run for a long enough time, you can soon stop working and feed off your investment returns. Otherwise, you will have to work until you die.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><a href="https://m2.rise.capital/mr"><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/SNeEDcAiqtdcPu1WktiRIV_wZ7Xmr8qwQzyQU7YPUHakqg9VEr5zVH_K-y1V9p5TUUEXa_XMNu6UFxLnyKGiddJ41gZsIh0M4guaOP9xfnvoLORPwj6RjDgR64P8rl0yXtLB1OmQ" alt=""/></a></figure>



<p>As depicted in the image above, saving approximately $450k at a 10% annual return can give you a net worth of $2.35m within 30 years. But your emphasis should not be on saving $450k or banging a net worth of $2m. Rather it should be saving an amount commensurate with your income and investing it consistently to generate compounding returns. That way, you won&#8217;t have to work till you die.</p>



<p>Make your money work for you while you sleep.</p>



<h2>Don&#8217;t be emotional about investing</h2>



<p><em>&#8220;I&#8217;m not emotional about investments. Investing is something where you have to be purely rational and not let emotion affect your decision making &#8211; just the facts.&#8221;</em> ~ Bill Ackman</p>



<p>This one is difficult! Our default as humans is to be emotional about our investment. However, the less emotional we can be, the better our investing performance.</p>



<p>To cushion the effect of emotion is why it is important to set up a system for your investment. Things like automating your investment using direct debit, locking up some funds so that you can&#8217;t withdraw it, and having an emergency fund so you are not forced to liquidate your investment when an unexpected need comes.</p>



<p>Work towards being less emotional. The investing world is volatile, expect it and understand that it will always pass.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><a href="https://m2.rise.capital/mr"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/MRRz6Dyq9D7IRhkD9h2SvEf607zhRRErWyIv1b6MgxR3D-MHOheNlvGS3dpYoiKpoYRue4q4ArehJOH40VLA0n_ytbk8olIk_nNqDwZsf8bEkSa-guXilXqoIuHs7mAe2fLdjYDv" alt="Long term investing always guarantee growth in the upward direction. Start your stress free wealth management  journey with Rise."/></a><figcaption><em>Image credit: @VisualizeValue</em></figcaption></figure>



<h2>Buy low and sell high and you will make tons of money over the long run</h2>



<p><em>&#8220;Many investors make the mistake of buying high and selling low while the exact opposite is the right strategy to outperform over the long term.&#8221;</em> ~ John Paulson</p>



<p>In the earlier part of this year, the market was trading low and growth dragged a lot. Those are periods of buying low. Today the market is rebounding again with good gains. However, it is those who have invested in that period of lows that will make the most returns now. Because they bought when things were low.</p>



<p>It is usually difficult to buy when the market is red. However, if you can do it, then you will be part of those who make the most returns.</p>


7 Lessons From 7 Legendary Investors


<p>Did you notice that for the past couple of weeks, your stock plan has been nosediving?</p>



<p>The market has returned only negatives and not a single green week on week in the past couple of days. That can be scary – no, it’s frightening.</p>



<p>How can you invest $1,000 and check your investment three weeks later to see a balance of $870? 13% of the value of your money is gone! Times like this make you question your conviction and those managing the money for you. Before you do, though, let me take you down memory lane.</p>



<p>In the stock market history, dips (or call it drawdowns) are the norm, not the exception. They happen frequently. And it is only wise to prepare your mind that you will experience it at one time or the other. Any expectation that does not put drawdowns into consideration will soon meet a big disappointment.</p>



<p>The chart below shows the yearly historical returns of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%26P_500">S&amp;P 500</a> spanning 30 years. As you will notice, the story of 30 years is never one of continued green bars. Rather, it is one of few greens followed by few reds, then green again, and the cycle continues.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/5SlohUubZ9QHs-4RfsPa7K__tdmXfmEw0yfbGOQzO7wD-9Tl1sJidegYq_XIUdSzTpRpf1qmDZGm4B5suh2CL1EmQ9M5jnBGtpuIBuWiEvO2eciif4q_LL5YaGWL4tqlyuap4zeh" alt=""/><figcaption>A<em>nalysis by Risevest; Data from Macrotrend</em></figcaption></figure>



<p>But if that’s the nature of the market, why will anyone invest in a thing like that?&nbsp;</p>



<p>It&#8217;s because, despite the volatility in the stock market, it is still one of the best investment vehicles. Stocks have stood the test of time and created wealth for people across the globe.&nbsp;</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/VLzr_MXYl-MQjPJcTK79itwOtbAFkqwxFr9GCPOVQc_-O6U9YHKcB9fH4wrNaBQpRJ3zGgxoD5mN8UQwSQWIX7AZJPYGAwlFvlX4OqhnfPZQQaOuwgf_n7alRy1NT_CfU2AYJf3X" alt=""/></figure>



<p>Imagine a scenario where someone invested $10,000 in the S&amp;P 500 in 1991 and left it invested until 2020. How much do you think the $10,000 will be worth?</p>



<p>$10,000 invested during the period will be worth $152,000 now. Despite all the ups and downs, the many stock market collapses, the investor still ends up with $152,000 in the end. </p>



<p>The stock market is not a get-rich-quick scheme, if you’ve been told otherwise, it’s time you reset your expectations. But the stock market can help you make untold wealth only if you are patient and <a href="https://youtu.be/pFgPNVytlwA">stick to investing, rain or sunshine</a>.</p>



<p>So don’t think you are doing anything wrong if your $1,000 turns to $870. You are not wrong, hold your conviction firm and know that there’s nothing to worry about.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><a href="https://rise.capital/"><img loading="lazy" width="1024" height="512" src="https://money.rise.capital/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/blog_banner_copy-210610-1-1024x512.png" alt="investing, risevest, invest best " class="wp-image-922" srcset="https://money.rise.capital/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/blog_banner_copy-210610-1-1024x512.png 1024w, https://money.rise.capital/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/blog_banner_copy-210610-1-300x150.png 300w, https://money.rise.capital/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/blog_banner_copy-210610-1-768x384.png 768w, https://money.rise.capital/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/blog_banner_copy-210610-1-1536x768.png 1536w, https://money.rise.capital/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/blog_banner_copy-210610-1-2048x1024.png 2048w, https://money.rise.capital/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/blog_banner_copy-210610-1-1568x784.png 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a></figure>



<h2>About The Rise Stock Index </h2>



<p>The Rise Stock Index comprises some of the finest companies in the world. They are innovating and building new products and services to make the world a better place. There’s a high likelihood that you use some of their products (Twitter, Amazon, etc.), and you can’t even imagine a world in which those products are not available to you. That’s what it means for the <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/articles/fundamental/03/022603.asp">fundamentals</a> of a stock to be intact despite a price decline.</p>



<p>What we invest in at Risevest are not fads or meme stocks like <a href="https://rise.capital/blog/gamestop-or-long-game">GameStop</a>. Instead, we look for companies leading the market, innovating at scale, and designing business models that allow them to capture value at different value chains of their products. Although companies like these may also underperform in the short term, over the long term, they deliver excellent returns to our investors over the long term.</p>



<p>We have written about a few of these companies in our portfolio; <a href="https://rise.capital/blog/shopify-110-revenue-growth-fuels-our-optimism">Shopify</a>, <a href="https://rise.capital/blog/welcoming-bumble-to-the-rise-portfolio">Bumble</a>, and <a href="https://rise.capital/blog/crowdstrike-delivered-a-phenomenal-q4-result">CrowdStrike</a>. We will continue to write more about how we are thinking and what we are thinking about these portfolio companies to keep you informed.</p>



<p>In the meantime, focus on growing your career and business while we focus on growing your investments.</p>



<p>Also, if you are looking to make extra income, we are putting together a conversation on May 29, 2021, that will benefit you a great deal. <a href="https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/8116212640447/WN_SHebiQ8nToiVaX-FC2Ozdg">Register here</a>.</p>


Dips happen. How to deal with it.


<p>You&#8217;ve heard that the best return on investment comes when you invest over the long term. In fact, there&#8217;s a graph that best illustrates that.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pC_zfGRkLNf45vyzsEcyD8D1oYTcKWsgK5Y0gww4jhY4ldb9McnC2Z5Pib8-Kts8lf6QoKU1nZ6BnjUwJLERPwpaKFKojwYdzdoazMKrJs63j0c9PDiBycZSnFQ9028RVTvqyw-j" alt=""/></figure>



<p>The reality is that investing your money in any plan, with the mindset of keeping it there for decades something that’s done for fun. It&#8217;s a difficult task. We either end up not doing it or we break the cycle. And frankly, there&#8217;s no quick fix for that, it&#8217;s human nature.</p>



<p>However, there are some things that others have done to help them navigate such long term goals that are difficult to achieve.</p>



<p>In this article, I’ll be uncovering 3 things you can do to help you navigate your long term investing goals.</p>



<h2>Narrowing your focus</h2>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/OW4sYz8BhCT5xoasEAcJyBf39NH5VWVs_Q1iPAfyZpqvOyv8lj0r1WRUJjWWxA7sK76KFgZw6h5DeNdConx2ZCKtwDeOnWI5pCWbzQGNIyxPa2PBGA3v1WNNf-FjDsW7zeTUmI6z" alt=""/><figcaption><strong><a href="https://th.bing.com/th/id/Rde483e326083800ae103ee74c1a94464?rik=%2b4ZA%2bnMgB23vXw&amp;riu=http%3a%2f%2fwww.trbimg.com%2fimg-5970cc58%2fturbine%2fct-joan-benoit-samuelson-chicago-marathon-20170720&amp;ehk=exUmNL%2bcNQg%2fGqQLVxsRKlVguQUOrdJadcnIGTs4V0Q%3d&amp;risl=&amp;pid=ImgRaw">Photo credit</a></strong></figcaption></figure>



<p>Joan Benoit Samuelson was the first women&#8217;s Olympic marathon champion, winning the Gold Medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. She ran for 26 miles in 3:02:53. Before that time, women were not allowed to run the marathon. Joan Benoit Samuelson&#8217;s landmark victory was the beginning of a changed narrative. Since then and till now, a lot more people have run the miles well under 3 hours.</p>



<p>When asked how she was able to run that long miles in the time she did and with much energy remaining, her answer was instructive. She said something like ”what she does is to use some kind of narrowed focus, she chooses a target ahead of her and pursues that target alone per time. It could be the pink short of somebody running ahead or a visual beacon she can see in a distance. And then she narrows down on those as the target. She reaches that and sets another and another until she reaches the finish line.”</p>



<p>So she takes the 26 miles and breaks it down to smaller nearby competitions. </p>



<p>The same effect of narrowed focus has been seen to help when pursuing long term financial goals. 10 years is a very long time to keep your money invested but 1 year is not long nor is 6 months. What you can do to help you achieve a 10 years financial goal is to:</p>



<ol><li>Forget about the 10 years</li><li>Focus on a shorter time frame eg. 6 months or 1 year.</li><li>Set target savings and investment that can be achieved within a year. Then work towards achieving that alone.</li><li>When you achieved the 1-year goal, set another 1-year goal.&nbsp;</li></ol>



<p>Doing this, you will realize that all you have before you is just a 1-year goal repeated 10 times. Oftentimes, this approach has worked for a lot of people and it may work for you if you try it as well.&nbsp;</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/9g4ysAuLQCzQOiuqS9hdVcSFmy5prRVhtB36jN5WA8-ECN4QnxHZWE9cjzzlkQKM8TJT9rKwAsCz_dZIHDekhql4w3G9prXegnCAF740svEQ2oV10tRsmDpuNWuzfXp50GxjKpuW" alt=""/></figure>



<p><strong>A Recommendation:</strong> Rise makes implementing this approach very easy for you through an Auto Invest option and the period is created for the Fixed Income and Real Estate plan. You can easily set a target investment for a year in a plan and automate the debit to remove the hurdles of doing it yourself.</p>



<h2>Materialize the long term&nbsp;</h2>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/hab583boJBW7KPc5FhWB-N7-CZijUtcpgbBQ3owcO6BPpkHZ38zObVchS7mTrZW6qOZhrwjIJMzrbVEJT71iCgt4Hqpd7oe91Tv-9ugRPPz26Jz5KQBJHzvWWJN6ORdMRuYnCzeS" alt=""/></figure>



<p><a href="https://image.winudf.com/v2/image1/Y29tLmRhaWx5Lmhvcm9zY29wZS56b2RpYWMuZmFjZW15c3RlcnkucGFsbWlzdHJ5X3NjcmVlbl8wXzE1NjQxNjMzMTlfMDU4/screen-0.jpg?fakeurl=1&amp;type=.jpg">Photo credit</a></p>



<p>In an experiment conducted by Prof. Emily Balcetis of New York University, she asked her students whether they&#8217;ve started saving for retirement or not. 92% of them said, ”They have not thought about retirement.” This was despite the fact that they had jobs and the advantages of starting early far outweigh starting tomorrow <a href="https://rise.capital/blog/when-should-i-start-investing"><strong><em>when to start investing</em></strong></a>.</p>



<p>When Prof. Emily Balcetis asked why they weren&#8217;t thinking about retirement, their common answer was that ”it was too far off” considering they were just entering the real world (first-year work).</p>



<p>Then she took their photographs and used photo morphing software to try and create what they are likely to look like at old age. Then she printed it and handed it over to them so they could see what they are likely to look like at retirement. Then she gave them time to look at it and to jot down what they would be doing at retirement, what hobbies they will have and who they will be with among other things.</p>



<p>After the activities, she turned to each of them again and asked if they will start saving for retirement immediately from their next paycheck. A vast majority of them replied yes this time around.</p>



<p>What happened to the students in this class is a common phenomenon among humans and that includes you. 30 years from now is very far but when we materialize what we will like to be doing in 30 years and what our condition might look like, in a way the period will seem not too far away anymore.</p>



<p>That&#8217;s why this second point comes in as a handy strategy to help you focus on the long term.</p>



<p><em>It is much easier to save and invest towards your dream home even if it takes 15 years than it is to just save and invest for no clear material benefits for 15 years.</em></p>



<p>In light of the above, we encourage you to attempt putting a <strong><em>material goal</em></strong> towards all the plans that you are creating.</p>



<p>Instead of naming your plans ”savings” or ”investment”, give it names like ”graduate education”, ”children college education”, ”$20,000 house project” and the likes. That way, you tend to be committed to your plan and be disciplined enough to not interrupt the cycle. We think you should try this.</p>



<h2>Your future self is still you</h2>



<p>This last point lends itself to groundbreaking research by Hal Hershfield, a psychologist at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. He wanted to know why people weren’t saving for retirement. So he did something uncharacteristic.</p>



<p>Hershfield and his team <a href="https://www.apa.org/action/resources/research-in-action/scan">scanned the brain</a> of the participants in their research and found something interesting.</p>



<p>The same reaction that the brain has when confronted by some unknown person asking you for money is what it has when you are told to save and invest for the future. In other words, <em>the longer the term of investment, the stranger you appear to yourself.</em> So you tend to make decisions that benefit you today more easily than you would make decisions that will benefit you tomorrow but hurt you a bit today.</p>



<p>Just like you wouldn&#8217;t go hungry or inconvenience yourself to put food on the table of a stranger, you will also not endure such to benefit your future self whom your brain equates to a stranger.</p>



<h2>What&#8217;s the way out?</h2>



<p>Solving a problem starts by identifying it and that&#8217;s what we&#8217;ve done. One of the most effective ways to reverse this working of the brain to constantly remind yourself that your future self is in all ways still you. You literally have to do that.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Other things you can do are</p>



<ol><li>Making it easy for your Future Self to do whatever it is your Present Self doesn’t want to do &#8211; instead of saving 50% of your income for the sake of some 10 years goal, save just 5%. Instead of saving for 10 years, save for 1 year 10 times.</li></ol>



<ol start="2"><li>Employ the tactic of instant gratification &#8211; instead of postponing the benefits of achieving your 10-year goal to 10 years from now, set some reward metrics that you can benefit from immediately. For example, when you save with Rise, tweet about it. Another thing you can do is join the <a href="https://rise.capital/affiliates/signup">Rise affiliate program</a> and take pleasure in helping others to achieve their financial goal.</li></ol>



<p>Long-term investing is hard and we recognize that. All the stories and strategies that we&#8217;ve shared so far confirms that and proves that it is not a one-person problem but a humanity problem. Our hope for sharing these 3 strategies is that if one doesn&#8217;t work for you, the other will work or a combination of others will work.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><a href="https://rise.capital/"><img loading="lazy" width="1024" height="512" src="https://money.rise.capital/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/blog-banner-copy-5-210610-1024x512.png" alt="Risevest invest" class="wp-image-929" srcset="https://money.rise.capital/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/blog-banner-copy-5-210610-1024x512.png 1024w, https://money.rise.capital/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/blog-banner-copy-5-210610-300x150.png 300w, https://money.rise.capital/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/blog-banner-copy-5-210610-768x384.png 768w, https://money.rise.capital/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/blog-banner-copy-5-210610-1536x768.png 1536w, https://money.rise.capital/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/blog-banner-copy-5-210610-2048x1024.png 2048w, https://money.rise.capital/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/blog-banner-copy-5-210610-1568x784.png 1568w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a></figure>


Long-Term Investing is Hard: Here are 3 things to help you make it easier.


<p><em>This is an article that you need to read immediately before you make any decision about your stock market investment at such a time as this.</em></p>



<p>If you have been checking your stock market investment returns on your <a href="http://rise.capital">Rise account</a> in the last few days, you will see it’s been negative returns all along. And we know you may be worried but we would like to tell you that you don’t have to worry.</p>



<p>Negative returns on your stock plan simply mean assets in the portfolio are getting cheaper. Well, that’s one perspective, another person may choose to see it as declining in value.</p>



<p>The right perspective though is actually that stocks are getting cheaper. The value of the companies in our stock plan is intact. They are still executing on their mission and growing revenue and cash flow. And there’s been no news or any form of information to suggest otherwise.</p>



<p>However, when assets get cheaper, there’s bound to be panic. The panic sometimes leads to people making costly decisions. Decisions like pulling out of the stock market instead of running into it. And decisions at such a time as this are always what determines your investment success or otherwise.</p>



<p>As you know, we have always <a href="https://rise.capital/blog/long-term-investing-is-hard-here-are-3-things-to-help-you-make-it-easier">advocated </a>that keeping a long-term view is the best way to get the best out of the market. In the short term, the stock market goes up and down. In the long term, the only clear thing is the stock market going up.</p>



<h2>Think about this scenario:</h2>



<ul><li>You own 1 unit of a stock that’s currently worth $1,000</li><li>Then the stock is down by 20% to $800</li><li>Out of panic, you sold that one unit to “cut your loss”. So you now have $800.</li><li>You planned to get back to the market when growth is restored and everywhere is green again.&nbsp;</li><li>But the market only recovered slowly and then suddenly such that you now have to buy the asset at even a more expensive price. Which means you lose the advantage of <em>selling to cut your loss</em>. That is it will now cost you more than $800 to buy one unit of the stock again.</li></ul>



<p>You think that’s not possible, we think it’s not only possible, but it’s also the norm. However, staying invested in the stock market has an advantage. And the advantage is in ensuring that you do not miss the “days that matters”.</p>



<h2>“Days that matters”</h2>



<p>In a <a href="https://am.jpmorgan.com/us/en/asset-management/adv/insights/retirement-insights/guide-to-retirement/">research</a> carried out by JP Morgan, analyzing data between January 2001 to December 2020, 20 years. It found that missing 10 days in the markets could cost you 50% of your potential return. And missing 20 days out of 5,000 trading days within 20 years could mean you won’t make any return from the market at all.</p>



<p>You see, while there are about 250 trading days a year and 5,000 trading days in 20 years, a major portion of a stock&#8217;s return in that 20 years happens in about 100 trading days. This means what happens in 2% of the days decides your 5,000 days return. Since it’s difficult to foretell what those days are, staying invested with good companies is the only advantage. And that is exactly what we offer you at Risevest &#8211; a portfolio of quality companies.</p>



<p>JP Morgan’s research modelled a scenario where $10,000 was invested from 2001 to 2020. Then adjusted for the assumption that an investor misses a couple of <em>days that matters</em>. Below is the difference in the outcome from the findings.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image is-resized"><a href="rise.capital"><img loading="lazy" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/NDaea5_UjdplHD22olckl3Bw0PrZU_Zf0qTiU-XJd0sHuAWGoskuKq1ON0wuYaBfu9DfVVAi97aYowJoHCqfVtttbyETCnRiR1kHVboIHapEyKD_mRUUpDfAaqs1feA7K8jfIHn8" alt="A table listing results from the JP Morgan research on the Stock Market." width="524" height="368"/></a><figcaption>JP Morgan&#8217;s research on the stock market</figcaption></figure>



<p></p>



<p>While this is a compelling finding, what we find even more instructive is the note that accompanied the research from JP Morgan. <em>“Seven of the best 10 days occurred within two weeks of the 10 worst days, six of the seven best days occurred after the worst days and the second-worst day of 2020 – March 12 – was immediately followed by the second-best day of the year”.</em></p>



<p>From the example of the investor above who liquidated their asset to “cut loss”, what do you think is the probability of them not missing a day like March 12 above? Very likely they will miss it, you guessed right.</p>



<p>This is the reason why we teach that having a long term view of your investment is the best. And we also like to emphasize that your<em> time in the market matters more than your attempt to time the market</em>.</p>



<p>Don’t time the market, just trust the process and ensure that you have a long term view. Having a long term view will of course mean the money you are investing is not your emergency fund or some amount you need within a few weeks or months.</p>


Market Downturns Might Be Good For You, Here’s Why


<p>Often, we tend to have all kinds of money at hand – our savings, some else&#8217;s savings, our rent, school fees, the category goes on. </p>



<p>When an investment opportunity shows up, the urge to make a good return may sometimes push us to invest all sorts of money which often puts us in an unhealthy financial position.</p>



<p>Some money is untouchable, not because you won’t make a return on investing them. Rather because of the non-alignment between why you invest and those kinds of money.</p>



<h2><strong>The money you will need in a short time</strong></h2>



<p>Investing this kind of money exposes you to the risk of liquidating your investment when it is not yet due. Thereby paying a charge or liquidating it when the asset price is currently down. </p>



<p>Asset prices don’t always go up, they fluctuate daily. You might end up needing the money on a day that it is trading at a price that will make you lose money. Don’t do it.</p>



<h2><strong>Money for a defined purpose other than investment</strong></h2>



<p>In this category, you have money like school fees, house rent, your emergency fund, and the likes. Notice that all the examples I mentioned here are money whose timing isn’t in your control. You can need your emergency fund immediately with no room for a delay. When your rent is due, you risk embarrassment if you do not pay up. </p>



<p>And for school fees, you don’t want to be kicked out of school or want your children kicked out for not paying school fees. Don’t invest this category of money as well.</p>



<p>An important caveat to that though, if the money is such that you are saving it for another due date which is months away e.g. rent in 12 months or 24 months, by all means, please invest. However, don&#8217;t put this kind of money in a  volatile asset class. Remember, this money must be available when it is needed. </p>



<h3><strong>The money that is not yours</strong></h3>



<p>This point is important because of the similar risks I’ve mentioned above. If you are the type that usually has someone’s money with you, the temptation might be high to “quickly make use of it” or to quickly invest it and make a buck on it. </p>



<p>If you’ve done this well enough though, you would have learnt that it’s a bad idea as the person who kept the money with you tends to need a lot of money when you don’t have them immediately.  </p>



<p>Thereby, forcing you to take a loss or other non-monetary loss (e.g. embarrassment). Even if the money is kept with you for a long time, Don&#8217;t invest it.  Invest your own money alone.</p>


You Should Never Invest These 3 Categories Of Money


<p>In 2020, our stock investment plan returned 40.77% while the real estate while the fixed income plan returned 16% and 10.1% respectively. Anyone seeing this would have wished that they invested all their money in the stock plan to get the maximum return possible. But is that the most efficient way to grow your wealth? What happens when stock performs poorly or real estate performs poorly?</p>



<p>Stocks don&#8217;t always go up. The best performing asset at any point in time can also be the worst at another time. Thinking about your investment principles, you shouldn&#8217;t just consider how to make the maximum return in the market. It should also be about how to cushion storms when they come.</p>



<p>Ray Dalio of Bridgewater, the largest hedge fund in the world that manages over $150b developed a portfolio idea in 1996 called the All-Weather Portfolio.</p>



<p>The idea is that you should be able to build a portfolio that will stand in all weathers. Ray Dalio&#8217;s team concluded that there are 4 kinds of weather; <em>rising growth, falling growth, rising prices (inflation) and falling prices (deflation).</em> The weather that we seem to have right now is that of rising growth where the stock market is skyrocketing. But if there is one thing history has taught us, it&#8217;s that all weathers only last for a while before another comes. Hence, the need to be prepared for all weathers.</p>



<p>A portfolio that will stand in all weathers as popularized by Ray Dalio is divided as below:</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/Y0epuRT2QXSFSDIDAtfc06IpxqcR5K5JdPRbFnnES9rJBgHeLXBwhxuq7vKNjkPXUW6FKFnzUrA5MY3kQS7ZFZbIBm4hqCtNro_1WzSAg2setcPStJ63jdVTzDo3OR9jJects27Y" alt=""/></figure>



<p>Since 2006, a simulated all-weather portfolio compounded at an annual rate of 8%. Compared to the S&amp;P 500 at 8.5%. However, the maximum drawdown on S&amp;P during this period was 32% compared to 18% on the all-weather portfolio.</p>



<p>The logic behind the principle is first a portfolio with sufficient diversification, then what the asset should be diversified in. Also, it should be such that reduces drawdowns while maximizing upsides. The challenge of course is that you will not get the maximum return in the market but you will have great sleep at night in all kinds of weather.</p>



<h2>Building an all-weather portfolio with Risevest</h2>



<p>When we conceived the idea of Risevest, prosperity for our people was the prime goal. It is our driving force and it is what we optimize for. The implication of this is that even if we see an opportunity that can give the maximum return in the market but could as well potentially cause catastrophic wealth erosion, we would rather not invest in such an opportunity. <a href="https://risevest.medium.com/gamestop-or-long-game-eacb67a7a136">GameStop comes to mind here</a>.</p>



<p>That’s why on the Rise app, you’ll realize that we have more than one investment product. We have fixed income, real estate and stock. The idea is to give you enough product to build an all-weather portfolio.</p>



<p>To build an all-weather portfolio on the Rise app, there are two options.</p>



<ol><li>Building All Weather Portfolio With “Build Wealth” Feature</li></ol>



<p>On the Rise app, you would have noticed a “build wealth” feature and maybe you have even used it. When you tap to create a “build wealth” plan, we will ask you a couple of questions after which we will show you a portfolio mix that will fit your risk profile.</p>



<p>The recommendation we make for you is such that it fits your risk profile and that can stand all kinds of weather. Also ensures you have great sleep at night as you build wealth.</p>



<p>And yes, you can edit the recommendation to accommodate your thought and judgement. The idea is not rigidity but expert advice plus flexibility. With such a plan if you keep adding to it as you planned, you are set to build wealth in all kinds of weather.</p>



<ol start="2"><li>Build The All-Weather Portfolio</li></ol>



<p>The other option to create the all-weather Portfolio is for you to build it yourself without the use of our “Build Wealth Plan”. It involves deciding which percentage of your investment should go to fixed income and which should go to real estate and stock as you may deem fit.</p>



<p>Constructing such a portfolio would require more effort from you but it is not impossible. We have seen a lot of others like you doing it. What’s important is that you think in terms of an all-weather scenario and invest in terms of that.</p>



<p>Markets are up at the moment but markets don’t always go up. Investments behave differently depending on how the market is. With a portfolio consisting of different asset classes, you are set up to have the cushion to forestall any drawdown that may threaten to wipe your wealth away.</p>


How To Use Risevest To Build An All-Weather Portfolio


<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/KAr98hzK6a943eyp4g0PjN-gu9qIBkVMuqrQzGVknCLp4LXCajL8rqUtdq7zhbu-VStYVTnJ2JvCKelu7e4yTF0s0uIj4WW8UBhOEd8fxOkrKdU5-2HvvvQuZ9c3Iujj2HilQe1b" alt=""/><figcaption><img loading="lazy" width="624" height="309" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/KAr98hzK6a943eyp4g0PjN-gu9qIBkVMuqrQzGVknCLp4LXCajL8rqUtdq7zhbu-VStYVTnJ2JvCKelu7e4yTF0s0uIj4WW8UBhOEd8fxOkrKdU5-2HvvvQuZ9c3Iujj2HilQe1b"></figcaption></figure>



<p class="has-normal-font-size"><sup><em>Data from matrotrends.com | Analysis by Rise</em></sup></p>



<p>The image above is the historical stock price movement of Apple in the last 5 years adjusted for all <a href="https://www.thebalance.com/understanding-stock-splits-3141376">stock splits</a>. If you draw a line from the origin to the current position (as we’ve done), you will get a straight line moving up from the origin.&nbsp;</p>



<p>That&#8217;s what we all want; an asset whose price is always going up. But does that exist? A look at historical prices of different assets shows that this doesn&#8217;t exist. All assets increase and decrease in price depending on prevailing circumstances. Yet, this straight line underpins the principle of <strong><em>buying when others are selling.</em></strong></p>



<p>What we see in that graph is <em>a perfect line with an upward trajectory,</em> however, you can see from the highs and lows that reality is not often a straight line.</p>



<p>Let’s take a closer look at one of the lows. In September 2018 the Apple share price peaked at $55.6 and started declining. It never reached that peak again until a year later in September 2019.&nbsp;</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/dpCBAxgJ42nIL3B-la805H14wRWruZ0B6XqWS3ofn4A9y1leTi4UMo6wl5_AgKfepXgT9xI98N3tc8gRrEOX1GoE39uBK-8uAjUBh0W9MPrg7ANKlBUdNeXzXKWDXHVJsS65iZ2v" alt=""/></figure>



<p><em><sup><em>Data from matrotrends.com | Analysis by Rise</em></sup></em></p>



<p>Yet, experts say you should keep on buying when others are selling. For the uninitiated, you know others are selling when the price of an asset is declining. It means more people are ready to drop that asset than people are willing to buy it. However, seeing your assets (portfolio) value decline every day for a year is not fun.</p>



<p>Let’s run through some numbers.</p>



<p>Assuming you bought one unit of Apple Stock every day between September 2018 and September 2019. What will your finances look like at the end of the period?</p>



<p>There were 272 trading days in the time under consideration. If you bought a unit of the stock every day, it means you will own 272 units of Apple Stock at the end of this period. Despite the ups and downs, nothing particularly changed about the share price. It only fully recovered and if you draw a line from the beginning of the period (September 2018) to the end of it (September 2019), you will obtain a perfect horizontal line <em>(see the red line from the image above)</em></p>



<p>However, because you were buying all along, especially when others were selling, your 272 units of stock will be worth <strong>$15,100 </strong>even though it cost you <strong>$13,000</strong> to buy them. A whopping <strong>16%</strong> return during a market downturn.</p>



<h2>Where did the 16% return come from?</h2>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/65hmEsRnxD6kJd4O-Oz9ZMY1XPea4yqURUT86OALdM6UaRk_jQpwgRx_QLoHV3-1aT7glYZ1JbhWfGcE0htsD6CXBmPy_mtu_vhOdzs__jd6J3u0E3-6TNZx3VzzBwkzQ85RpLay" alt=""/></figure>



<p><sup><em>Data from matrotrends.com | Analysis by Rise</em></sup></p>



<p>It came from doing the difficult thing &#8211; buying when others were selling. In the case of Apple Stock, it recovered its price and grew, the units you bought at the lower price made up and produced a return on your investment up to 16%.</p>



<p>Please note that while we have chosen to use a single stock as an example, the principle is largely applicable to most stocks.</p>



<p>Also, note that not all Stocks recover. Some decline for as long as 5 years before they can get back to their previous all-time-high. For example, Microsoft had a five-year decline between <a href="https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/MSFT/microsoft/stock-price-history">2000 and 2015</a>.</p>



<p>The million-dollar question is how do you know which stock will recover? The truth is that it&#8217;s very difficult to know. Many have burnt their hands buying when others were selling because they bet on the wrong stock. That&#8217;s why we encourage you to contract that part of the job to us. We have a team of dedicated experts whose responsibility is to ensure that only quality assets are in your portfolio; all assets go through a rigorous selection process that <a href="https://medium.com/@risevest/how-we-select-stocks-for-our-equity-portfolio-146da9df9032">we recounted here</a>.</p>



<p>When you choose a stock plan with Rise for instance and you see the value declining, you should be happy because you get the chance to buy that asset for a lower price than you did yesterday. And when you combine buying when others are selling and leaving the job of choosing what you buy to us, you are poised for rewarding long-term returns.</p>



<p>So yes, buy when others are selling because it balances out in the end. On our part, we invest your funds into a portfolio of expertly selected stocks based on their long-term growth opportunities and quality earnings.&nbsp; For instance, our Eurobond portfolio returns 10% on average, a return higher than the industry average and our Real Estate portfolio has also consistently produced a return greater than 10%. The same goes for our stock portfolio which has performed better than the S&amp;P 500 year to date.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Buying stocks is equal parts knowledge and temperament. By yourself, you will make a lot of spur of the moment decisions so your long-term outcome will be unsatisfactory. But if you stick with Rise, we have a certain level of objectivity and experience, and the right disposition to make your outcomes better.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Visit <a href="http://rise.capital">rise.capital</a> for access to the best stocks.</p>


The Principle Of Buying Stocks When Others Are Selling


<p>Everyone feels cheated when they get to the market and the price of rice has increased without an equivalent increase in the quality or quantity of the rice. We make remarks like &#8220;Nawa oo&#8221;, &#8220;what&#8217;s the meaning of all these now&#8221;, &#8220;why is the government doing this?&#8221; and many more similar remarks. What we are basically not fine with is the general increase in the price of commodities and services &#8211; inflation.</p>



<p>Imagine a bag of rice cost N15k in 2017 and you kept your money, say N15k (the price of a bag of rice) with someone to safeguard and you returned in 2018 to get the money but instead of getting the N15k, you were paid N25k (the new price of a bag of rice). On the surface, your money grew but its value dipped. You haven’t made a <em>real</em> gain. All you got is still a bag of rice, the same you would&#8217;ve gotten in 2017, for almost double the price.</p>



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-style-default"><p><em>A real gain will be a gain above the price of a bag of rice in 2018. If you&#8217;d gotten N26k instead of N25k, your real gain would have been N1k</em></p></blockquote>



<p>We dislike inflation because it erodes the value of our hard-earned money, shrinks our purchasing power and reduces our standard of living. We&#8217;ve used the example of a bag of rice to illustrate this but inflation applies to all things in the economy and that is why there&#8217;s usually an official rate of inflation for every economy. Currently, the inflation rate in Nigeria is 12.82% while it is less than 2% in the US.</p>



<h3>What has inflation got to do with your investment?</h3>



<p>Your goal of investing should be:&nbsp;</p>



<ol><li>Getting a return that is above inflation rate i.e. real return and</li><li>Increasing your purchasing power</li></ol>



<p>A thin line separates these goals. By now, you understand what real return is from the bag of rice analogy.&nbsp;</p>



<p>If the inflation in a given economy is 2%, any return on investment above 2% means the investor has earned a real return. The inflation rate in Nigeria as at August 2020 is 12.82% and it has averaged 15% between 1960 &#8211; 2019 and 12% since 2000.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/k_bIWCAIP9diqSq3dB9OL3ekMWVky4iD-kLHT2Db3Bu1Vt96bWG2Ig6Yv4LnJ1Ge56lJY430vlWJPAbKi8qGuBcQ7CecUjVeCGnW4AAHpgXhG7Mr4qPY1OvKLIzQNx5MnU2GZL40" alt=""/></figure>



<p><em>Data from <a href="http://www.macrotrends.com">www.macrotrends.com</a></em> | <em>Analysis by Rise</em></p>



<p>Going by the data of the past 19 years, the implication for the Nigerian investor is that they must allocate their capital in a way that will give them a return that is greater than the average inflation rate of 12% over the same period and beyond.</p>



<p>Getting a return above the inflation level will help in fulfilling the second goal of investing. It basically translates to having enough to buy other things after buying the bag of rice (increased purchasing power). That is, a return that ensures you have an amount greater than N25k in our imaginary scenario. That way, you will have some change after purchasing a bag of rice to buy something else.</p>



<h3>Where to get the maximum returns</h3>



<p>Nigerians can’t rely on Naira based assets because of double-digit inflation and devaluation affect the currency. Two examples are the Nigeria Stock Market and Government Securities.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/6NGXVIY_j0YlUrz5rRTlxhDd33vWPNx-JbkL6KnGxb3xB44qBsywGGaZpgvJE_qrFfQIBqjLh07JkRRFT-oqkoSaCNQO5f4SpgT1ZMa4YVj5DFOwe2O1L3G2bXxlK0ikBkBTR5SD" alt=""/></figure>



<p>Historical data of the Nigeria market index shows that if you’d invested N30,000 in the market index in the past 11 years, you would be worse off today as your money is not even up to N30,000 anymore. Of course, we’ve said nothing of the value of the Naira currency in question. </p>



<p>The message here is simple, The Nigerian stock market doesn’t accomplish the goals of investing. It does not beat the average inflation rate of 12% nor increase our purchasing power over the years under consideration.</p>



<p>The other alternatives are investments in Government securities. The latest 10 &#8211; year bond securities offered by the FGN offer a ROI of 12.5%. Going by our average inflation rate, that&#8217;s just enough to cover for inflation over the period. What&#8217;s unknown is will the value of the Naira remain the same in 10 years time?</p>



<h3>How Rise can help</h3>



<p>We saw how inflation makes it difficult for Nigerians to build wealth and decided to create the product suited to address this situation. The investor in Nigeria is faced with 3 major problems, devaluation of the currency, inflation and low ROI on investment options. We created Rise to provide a cushion for these problems.</p>



<ol><li>Rise invests your money in dollar-denominated assets. The implication of this is that devaluation immediately begins to work in your favour instead of against you. With more devaluation, the value of your investment increases.</li></ol>



<ol start="2"><li>Rise invests your money in an economy with a less than 2% inflation rate. Implying that all it takes to have a real return on your investment is about 3%.</li></ol>



<ol start="3"><li>Rise investment plans give a minimum of 10% return on investment on the average. That&#8217;s well above the inflation level of the economy it is invested in.</li></ol>



<p>With Rise, if you start investing say $500 every month into the assets we select for you, here&#8217;s what your long term journey will look like.</p>



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/qNG7xwJ9CO3jybO38GlUsBFte3o_ZMaB1bQQ7lkOysFqoQPAAd8dh-KCPnHF1JP9nA0RYHbOYsJq0_u-kzcoybEQm335ZzZ16K-c6DTCZZhTmdp1DvGetEBEkQBhhv7ctRrCn4ui" alt=""/></figure>



<p>If you hold for like 30 years, even though you would&#8217;ve only contributed $180,000 to Rise, your investment with us will be worth $1.13m by then.</p>



<p>Rise’s goal has always been about you, helping you to attain your investing goal with ease. You don&#8217;t need to do the work of selecting assets, Rise has experts and algorithms to do this for you. Select a plan, automate it to invest a specific amount from your account monthly and we&#8217;ll take care of the rest.</p>



<p>Visit <a href="http://rise.capital">rise.capital</a> to start.</p>


The Goal of Investing

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">It’s Black Friday shopping season and as I’m sure you’ve all noticed, retail and shopping outlets have started advertising eye popping deals to entice buyers. </span></p>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Here at MoneyRise we want you to make smart money decisions, so we are going to share some quick tips about how to make the most of the Black Friday deals. If you use this season well, you&#8217;ll get really great deals at prices that save you money! </span></p>
<ol>
<li>
<h4><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Don&#8217;t Buy Anything Just Because It&#8217;s On Sale:</strong><br />
</span></span></h4>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><br />
If you buy an item worth ₦10,000 for  ₦7,000, you did not save  ₦3,000, you spent  ₦7,000. Don’t be enticed to spend money you were not going to spend. Only spend money on what you already need. Which means you should have a list of what you want to buy, and stick to it. That nice blender selling for 40% off is not meant for you, if you already have a blender at home. Don’t play yourself. Be disciplined.</span></span></li>
<li>
<h4><strong>Not Everything Is Cheaper On Friday: </strong></h4>
<p>Don’t just think, <em>&#8220;Well, its Black Friday, so everything I buy is probably cheaper.&#8221;</em> It doesn’t work like that. Some outlets don’t do deep enough discounts. Some intentionally inflate their supposed original price to make their discounts look deeper than they are. To get the best deals, do price comparisons ahead of time, check many sites to know what a fair price is and if you’re actually getting a good deal or not. Bonus points if you already did this weeks or days ahead of time.</li>
<li>
<h4><strong>Have A Shopping Budget: </strong></h4>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Please there is life after Black Friday. There is the Christmas season, and that three-month period between December 31st and January 31st. We all know that period. You need your money to last through all that. So know exactly how much you can put towards your Black Friday shopping and once you hit that amount, stop. Ties right back to point one. Don’t get carried away.</span></span></li>
<li>
<h4><strong>Some Things Are Cheaper Offline: </strong></h4>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Black Friday seems to be an eCommerce driven activity. There are often better deals in the physical store, or in the open market. I’ve seen bargain hunters go offline, and find items at prices that make Black Friday deals look like daylight robbery. It may not be as convenient as ordering, but the savings might just be worth it. Another advantage of shopping offline is that you can leave your ATM/Credit card at home and only go with the money you’re willing to spend. If it’s gone, you’re done.</span></li>
<li>
<h4><span style="font-weight: 400;"><strong>Save As You Shop:</strong><br />
</span></h4>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;"><br />
If you’re going to spend during shopping season, use it as an opportunity to also save. For every  ₦5,000 you spend on shopping, invest  ₦5,000. It helps you avoid the guilt that comes with shopping, and also keeps something away to grow and possibly fund your future purchases. </span></li>
</ol>
<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">One of the smartest things you can do with your money is to earn dollar returns on it with Rise. Get started at </span><a href="http://www.rise.capital"><span style="font-weight: 400;">www.rise.capital</span></a><span style="font-weight: 400;">.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><em>Come back next week for more tips on how to be smarter with your money. </em></p>


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