7. Invest regularly
Investing little and often is sometimes better than investing larger lump sums. Researching investments has shown that even professionals find it is often better to invest regularly, rather than to try time the market investing a one off lump sum. In volatile times you may also benefit from Pound Cost Averaging, where by investing regularly, you seek to even out the highs and lows of the market. By starting to invest early and regularly you can take advantage of compounding.
8. Stick to your plan
Once you start investing for the first time you’ll realize it’s very hard to ignore the chatter about market movements, commodities, share tips, inflation, interest rates, dividends, gold price, oil price…it’s endless and is near enough constant with globalized markets. A true investor should be looking at long term trends and macroeconomic factors that originally shaped their plan and always keep these as their focus (you can view these in our DIY investor magazine).