Play The Stockmarket-Dont Play Its Not A Game

I think the title of this article really says a lot about why so many people lose money when investing in stocks. If you go in with the idea that you are going to play the stockmarket, you have the wrong mindset and you will probably lose more than you make. 

You see, you don't play the stockmarket, you play games but when you are investing you aren't playing, it is basically a business venture and if you don't know what you are doing, you will lose... maybe a lot. 

Instead, you should be willing to invest a little time and learn at least the basics of stock market investing. 

You may not want to spend a lot of time to become an expert but you should at least have a firm grasp of the basics that go into investing. 

If you don't know anything at all about investing, how can you even know if the advice you get from your broker is good advice or not?

That is mistake one for many would be investors, they simply don't know a thing about investing and they turn their money over to a broker and hope for the best.  If you really think about it, that really is a silly strategy. 

Here is something you should consider; how does your financial planner make their money? Are they so good at investing that all their income (or most of it, at least) comes from their own investments doing well?

Or, like most of them, do they make their money on commissions from investing other peoples money If they were so good and knowledgeable and really could make a lot of money investing, why wouldn't they do it with their own money instead of having to deal with clients and consist solely on commissions?

Something to think about. And if you do give that some thought, you are already ahead of many investors.  I don't mean any disrespect to financial planners but this is something you really need to think about. 

No matter how knowledgeable you are investing can involve risk and you aren't going to win every time, but if you do know what you are doing you can win more than you lose and you can get quite wealthy. 

So, no one is saying you have to do it all on your own, but you should have at least a little knowledge so you can be an active participant in your own investing strategy.  It's also important to ask the hard questions before you actually hire someone to invest for you and manage your money.  Investing is a smart move. You can put your money to work for you and actually grow it. But, you have to be willing to learn more about the process first. You also have to be willing to ask difficult questions before you find someone to work with you and help you on your investment journey.  Whatever you do, don't go in with the idea that you will "play the stockmarket" it's not a game, it's more like a business.