How To Make Investing Interesting (And Work For You)

Most people fear losing their money to investments, making it difficult to enjoy investing. To make investing more ‘fun’, here are 5 approaches you can take.

When it comes to investing, the conventional belief is that it’s boring and risky.

Yes, you need to do a lot of research on companies. Yes, it requires investment discipline. And yes, the road to financial freedom is long.

However, that doesn’t mean investing has to be a chore or a bore. Below are some ways to make investing more interesting to hopefully inspire you.

1. Set a (big) goal

Imagine that you’re the manager of a big football club. Each season, you’re expected to win the biggest trophies and go the distance. 

To achieve your target, you need to have a clear vision and know what you want to achieve. Next, you need to set a strategy on how to achieve it. 

Above all else, you have to motivate your team on how to achieve that goal. The key is to keep them hungry, ambitious, and determined to succeed. While you need to understand what makes your players tick, everyone is motivated by the same thing: success. 

It’s the same with investing: if you set up uninspiring goals, you’ll be less inclined to succeed. Setting an ambitious goal, on the other hand, helps you to stay focused and gives you a reason to have Terminator-like determination to achieve your goal. 

When it comes to setting up big goals, you need to think of the long-term. For example, working out how much you need to be financially independent in 10 years, or saving your first S$100,000 and investing that money to build your wealth. 

Once you have set your goals, you can plan your strategy and how to work towards it.

2. Invest in what you believe in

Take it from these two millennial investors who have built seven-figure portfolios before turning 30. When you invest in a company, you’re betting on the company to succeed because you believe in the company’s values, policies, and growth potential.  

For example, you believe that Tesla is worth much more than just an electric car company. While its stocks are pricey, you fully support the company’s vision and see the stock as a ‘must-have’.

When you have passion for a company or support its vision, it’s likely you’ll invest more time in researching the company or industry. As you become more knowledgeable, you’ll understand what you’re investing in and can make better investing decisions.

This makes investing easier (dare we say, more fun) and less of a chore. 

3. Talk to people who enjoy investing

Talking to people who are investors themselves will help you to learn more about investing. Not only can you learn and get investment ideas, but it also helps to improve your financial literacy and validate your own investments. 

Even if you don’t have any friends or family who are interested in investing, you can find like-minded people on social media and forums who are willing to share their knowledge and experience. 

As these are personalised experiences, they give you insight into what other people invest in. These are intel sources that you would not normally get from published literature, and more importantly, they’re authentic. 

4. Surround yourself with the right investing materials

This goes nicely into our next point, which is to soak yourself with the right investing resources.

Online forums like Reddit and Motley Fool are great resources because it’s where investors can share the latest news, investing trends, and have discussions about their views. There are plenty of discussion subreddits available on Reddit such as r/singaporerefi and r/investing.

Other than online forums, there are plenty of investing resources online. In Singapore, you have the likes of Investment Moats, The Financial Coconut, and The Fifth Person; while international resources include Investopedia, CNBC, and The Motley Fool. 

5. Remind yourself that your investments will pay off

Investing is risky and unpredictable and even when you try to do everything right, there are times when the market will fall and you’ll lose money. 

While it can be discouraging to see the stock markets plunging, you’ll have to convince yourself that what you’re doing will eventually pay dividends (pun intended) in the future. 

The good news is that you can learn from the mistakes of successful investors and what they did to succeed. Not many of us have the financial “moat” to make the mistakes that these investors can bear, so try to accumulate as much knowledge about investing as possible so that you have more confidence. 

But remember, unless you became a crypto millionaire overnight (and cashed out in time), it takes years for your investments to make you rich. You’ll need to pour lots of time into research and you need to be disciplined enough to invest consistently and not splurge on luxury items. 

Visualise yourself being financially independent and your bank account having several commas in the future, instead of working for exasperating bosses*, and it’s easier to stay the course.  

*To be clear, I'm not referring to my boss.

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