How Safe is Your Money?
When people speak about investing, especially on the internet, they tend to make it about extraordinarily large profit margins and overnight dollar millionaires, when, it is far from that in reality. Most investors earn small amounts over time which adds up to form big amounts as the years go by.
Depending on your goals, business awareness and available resources, investing can be as risky as driving blindfolded in Lagos traffic or as safe as living inside Aso Rock.
It all depends on YOU.
When you focus on “making it big” from every investment, you tend to overlook the importance of safety and in most cases, you lose everything.
As we love to say, investing is a long-term game, it takes time and patience to build a healthy portfolio of diversified earnings that will keep earning you a profit without fear of complete loss.
One very important factor to consider before you invest any amount of money is safety. Sure, every investment comes with some amount of risk. Even for physical investments such as real estate. One day, the government can decide to build a road in your street and your bedroom is where they plan to put the roundabout.
However, smart investors know how to reduce risk in their investments. Some risks are avoidable and should be avoided.
Some investors decide to only invest in government-backed securities like treasury bills and bonds, while others invest in mutual funds, which has a mix of different investments, like treasury bills and stocks in case one of them fails.
No matter the investment, safety is key.
You must know the major details. What makes the company tick? How do they make a profit? How do you get your returns?
Not caring about these details is why people constantly lose millions to different schemes all in the name of investing.
The best way to ensure the safety of your investments is to invest with registered and regulated companies, preferably regulated by the SEC. These companies cannot put your money in shady deals or Ponzi schemes, they have a solid business model which allows them to invest money on your behalf.
They are the best place to keep your money. Whether it is your retirement savings or your first investment, you are better off with them.
Avoid the temptation of “too-good-to-be-true” investment returns which are often too good to be true.
We hope that the next time you want to make an investment decision, you ask this question, “how safe is my money?”