LEARNING TO INVEST AS A BEGINNER USING STASH

Using Stash to begin Investing has been a positive experience for me. Stash is one of multiple Apps that can be used by beginning investors to get started investing on a smaller scale. The following post is my review and experience with the investing App Stash. This post does contain an affiliate link which if you click on the link and sign up through my link I will earn a small portion for your sign up. This in no way affected my review. The review shared is my honest opinion of the App Stash.

What held me back from investing in the past?

When I was younger I never understood investing. To be honest I still don't completely understand how it works but I am learning. As a beginning investor I was always hesitant to take any risk and was always afraid to lose everything I invested. Although I was hesitant I always wished I could afford to take a bit of risk with my own finances. So in 2019 I decided to start small with an App I had heard of frequently among the financial community called Stash.

Why I chose to Invest with Stash?

In 2019 I had reached a place in my life where I finally felt comfortable taking a few small risks financially. After paying off some debt this year and finally having a bit of a cushion in savings I made a decision to start, but to start out small. I already have a 401k which I had started investing in my twenties towards retirement but I wanted to begin investing on my own. This has always been a goal of mine to start learning to invest on my own. After researching a bit and reading multiple reviews of the company I decided to go with Stash.

What is Stash?

Stash is an investing App for people like me who do not want to invest a lot but want to try their hand at investing.

Does Stash have fees?

Stash does have fees that are involved like any investments us usually do. Because of the small amounts you are investing the fees do seem pretty high. In fact many would argue that they are a bit higher than they should be. I believe that this App is still good for a new Investor who does not have a lot of money to invest and wants to get started. It's a great place to try your hand at investing and to learn for the first time how it works.

How does stash work?

• Download the App for Stash

• I was provided a referral link which you can use to sign up. As I mentioned I have honestly been happy so far and would not recommend a product otherwise. My referral link is included here Stash Referral

• Next begin by connecting your bank info. I know this part was a bit scary for me also but this is it the first thing that I have had to do this with before. I am always cautious of things like this to begin with but I know that stash has a good reputation and will need to protect my information provided all along the way.

• There is a lot of reading material provided so I want to encourage you to read as much as you can to help you understand investing with Stash more. Such as How to invest with Stash and once you are signed up there is a library of additional information under Stash learn to help guide you.

• Next step would be selecting your investments. I have always read think diversity when selecting investments and have fun choosing among the many choices available. For me I tend to look at the Performance graph available on the Stash app before selecting my investments. I think it's good to analyze the trends over time and have an idea of the way the company and stock are doing overall. The way I choose is I find myself selecting companies I like and believe in their products. I try to think of companies that I value and that I believe are on an upward trend. This is absolutely no guarantee you will pick the best investments, but at least you are selecting products you also believe in and would want to succeed. Besides I already know of one key customer who purchases their products and that is me.

Do I need to know anything about investing?

Understanding investing completely is not necessary to start investing. The more you know about investing the better off you will be as you continue. In my opinion investing always involves risk so the biggest hurdle for a beginning investor is having the money and finally just starting. You aren't going to be perfect right away and you will make mistakes and have both gains and losses when you invest. Understanding a few key things does really help when you are starting out though.

How to start investing with Stash?

Download the App. Set up your account. Connect to your bank account ( I recommend not setting Investments automatically every week I recommend keep control of that yourself. What I do is I determine somewhere between $5 & $20 every paycheck that I can Invest and I sit down and chose my Investments every other week myself. Take a little time each time you do to analyze the investments just as I mentioned earlier by checking the performance graph. I think keeping control over the money going in and out is better so that you are more conscious about what is going on with your investments.The screenshot below is my current Investment as of 7/7/2020 not too bad for about a year of buying various stocks with no real experience. I definitely recommend reading up on stocks and doing some research along the way. This has been really helpful for me in determining what investments to make.

My review of Stash investing App?

So far my investing journey has been an interesting one. I feel that I have learned a lot already. Some of the things I have learned will be helpful moving forward. One thing I have learned is consistency is as important in Investing just as it is in Saving Money. Starting out even if it is on a small scale is also important. You can't be successful in anything if you are always afraid to start. I have also learned that in Investing, just like anything else in life you can't truly succeed without some failure. Don't be afraid to fail because that always comes before success in almost every part of life. That being said always remember this ...

Always remember these key things when investing

Diversity in your investing is better

Both loss and gain are a part of investing 

Only invest when you can afford some loss

Know your investing limit and stick to that

Start slowly and Invest smaller when you are getting started

Disclosure

I am not a financial Advisor and I will never advise on what or how to Invest. I myself am a beginning investor. At this time I am just taking in any advice and knowledge I can find on Investing and learning through my own experiences. Keep in mind that what I have shared today is just my personal experience and this is my review of my last 8 months using Stash. I am hopeful that moving forward I will have more positive insight to share on my experience with Stash.