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After graduation, my primary goal is to accumulate funds for investing. I believe starting early is important, as long-term investing tends to offer the best returns, so I want to lay a strong foundation. By starting early, I hope to compensate for any mistakes I may make along the way. My aim is to begin saving and investing while I'm still young, allowing myself time to learn and grow through the process.
✍🏻Increasing income
A key step in this process is increasing my income. I've spent considerable time experimenting and figuring out which role and environment best suit me, while understanding my limits and maintaining a healthy balance. I recognize that this journey won’t always be straightforward, especially as I take on more responsibilities in a job, so I want to ensure I don’t become overwhelmed along the way.
You might find these books helpful in navigating your career, particularly in areas like transitioning to a new job, negotiating your salary, requesting promotions, and building professional networks.
- When to Jump outlines four key steps for leaving an unsatisfying job: listen to your gut, make a plan, be open to luck, and don’t look back.
- Never Eat Alone provides actionable steps and a mindset for building a strong network.
- Who Gets Promoted, Who Doesn’t, and Why offers insight into climbing the career ladder with proven strategies for advancement.
✍🏻Side hustles
This is only if you have extra capacity beyond your regular job. While it is great to have weekday evenings and weekends free, having side hustles alongside a 9-to-5 job can boost your net worth and provide a stronger financial safety net. It's great when these side gigs can cover monthly expenses.
I chose my side hustles based on my existing skill set and the skills which I want to hone.
I find that these books are helpful in sharpening my focus and time management skills.
- Work clean: The life-changing power of mise-en-place to organize your life, work and mind
- 18 Minutes: Find Your Focus, Master Distraction and Get the Right Things Done
- Master your time, master your life: The Breakthrough System to Get More Results, Faster, in Every Area of Your Life
✍🏻Useful time management techniques
- 80/20 Principle: Concentrate on 20% of the tasks (most important) that will enable you to achieve more.
- Pomodoro technique: To get more done without interruptions, work in 25 minute intervals, with 5 minute breaks in between.
✍🏻Investments
After securing my insurance and building an emergency fund, I invested in index funds, REITs, bonds, and stocks.
✍🏻Index funds
I started out with index funds, intending to stay invested for the long run. I want investing to be efficient and simplified for my first investment and that is for my foundation.
Index funds are a smart investment because
- it tends to perform better over the long term
- saves time (researching on which stocks to purchase takes up more time)
- saves money (active trading involves multiple fees)
invest the time to acquire skills, build income streams and accumulate assets instead of researching which stocks to buy.
✍🏻Individual stocks
With the dip in the stock market in May 2020, I invested in stocks. There are so many interesting companies such as Tesla, Lemonade and Revolve to consider.
On a note of never stop learning, I began with index funds, gradually taking the time to learn about stock picking. As I became more comfortable with investing, I transitioned from ETFs to individual stocks.
✍🏻Book recommendations
These are the books on investment which I really enjoy
- The intelligent investor
- A random walk down wall street
- The little book of value investing
I write more about Investing, Personal finance & Positive psychology in my ebooks here