What Stops Us From Investing ?

I am all of 40+ years. It has taken me over 20 years to just get started. I am not early; but its never too late.

Quiet often, we are bogged down by so many things in an around us. We stop , we stall and in the process we fail to make progress. I have tried to make sense of the reasons we stall ourselves, and this in the context of investments in shares. Reasons are so many; probably as many as the number of emotions we have.

But I am writing this so that you can also think through what stops you from investing? And in the process get the motivation to begin. Do also share with our readers your thoughts; this might help others to do what has prevented themselves from doing for so long.. invest.

You can email me at invest@thetwigg.com

1. Lack of Awareness: In the initial days, for the most part of 30 years, I wasn’t even remotely aware of “Investing”. In passing yes, as part of news, yes. But, in the literal sense, in the sense of understanding it as a means of making money from money, No. It didn’t form part of my dictionary in life. There are so many like me, I presume, who aren’t aware of the great vehicle for personal income and wealth that is investing.

This seeming lack of awareness stems from many facts including the fact that schools and colleges don’t teach finance and money. Generally speaking, schools do not prepare people for the real world. And this is universally true. This was probably true with me but for you the reason for lack of awareness could be something completely different.

“Be Investment Aware”.

“Investment is a vehicle of opportunity if driven properly”

2. Lack of Money: As I became aware, read the news, understand what was happening around me, my interest in shares grew. But the interest wasn’t enough, as I had an excuse. I didn’t have enough money to make a difference.

his is one of the most common refrain we have, that is, we don’t have money to invest. What we don’t realise is the fact that it’s actually not the lack of money but the prioritisation of the use of money that prevents us from taking the step towards investing in most cases.

In reality, we all have money. Some less; and some more. Some just enough to feed 2 morsels of food a day and some not even enough to buy a Trump tower. It’s the choice of what we do with what we have determines the outcome that we get.

As an example, an investment of INR 10,000 in Infosys (ticker symbol, INFY) shares in 1993 would be worth more than INR 20 million now. Similarly $10,000 invested in GOOGL on IPO day would be worth more than $300K in today’s prices and rising. Divide the initial outlay in both these cases, the initial outlay would be small but large enough now.

“It’s what we do with money that counts.”