Money · 10 recordsStart investing

Most of the delay in starting is not knowing enough to feel safe. This front-loads a bounded amount of learning, then opens the account and sets up a monthly contribution, because the account nobody opens is the most common outcome.

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✦ Everything it creates

The whole plan, before you install it

Goal

Money invested every month, automatically Month 3

The account open and the contribution running, which is the part that never happens.

Learn enough to stop reading Week 5

Bounded, because open-ended research is why the account stays unopened.

  • Understand fees, diversification and my own time horizonDo firstWeek 3
  • Write down what I am doing and why, in five linesDo firstWeek 5

Open it and automate it Month 3

The unglamorous part that actually changes anything.

  • Open the accountDo firstWeek 6
  • Set up the monthly contributionMonth 2
  • Leave it alone and diarise a review in a yearMonth 3

Routines

  • Ignore the balanceweekly
✦ It comes with a note

Not advice

This is a plan for doing the learning and the admin. Anything about what to buy, or about your own circumstances, is a conversation for a regulated adviser.\n\nAutomate the contribution. Deciding monthly means deciding badly — usually less after a fall, which is exactly backwards.

Questions

Start investing, answered.

Enough to understand fees, diversification and your own time horizon — which is a bounded amount, and is why the learning project here has a deadline. Open-ended research is the most common reason the account never gets opened.
No. This is a plan for doing the learning and the admin, not a recommendation about what to buy. Anything about specific investments or your own circumstances is a conversation for a regulated adviser.
Because deciding each month means deciding badly — usually less after a fall, which is exactly backwards. A standing contribution removes the decision, which is most of what makes long horizons work.
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