Investing in shares is something that we have become more interested in over the last couple of years.
I’d never been a very big fan of investing in shares as I was of the view that it was really rather risky, but I’ve done a bit more research lately and have decided that investing in shares is another wealth creation strategy that is worth pursing.
If share investing is something that you’re interested in then chances are you might be wondering what is the best way to get started.
We’re relative newbies to share investing, so I certainly don’t want to give anyone the impression that I’m a share investing expert. But I did think it might be helpful to share with you how we’ve been investing so far.
When it comes to share investing I like to keep it simple. That’s one of the reasons why we have been using Sharesies.
We came across Sharesies by accident really after Ryan won a voucher for $50 to spend on the Sharesies platform.
Ryan gave me responsibility for investing his $50, so I downloaded the Sharesies App and set up an account for him.
When it came to choosing shares I found that a little overwhelming to start with, but the Sharesies App does give you a bit of information about different shares and how they have been performing over the last 5 years.
I noticed that the Smartshares US 500 was performing pretty well, so I decided to put our $50 into that.
At the time I knew next to nothing about shares, but it turns out the US 500 was a good choice as it has performed really well over the time that we had the money in. In fact, I often wish we had put in more money at that time as in the last 5 years that particular investment has seen a 74% change in price (aka. the value of each share has risen from approximately $5 to almost $13 per share).
Now that I’ve been learning about shares a bit more, I’ve noticed that the US 500 is quite popular, so I was fortunate enough to have made a good choice. Having said this, I do recommend that you do your own research (and/or get some advice) about what shares are best for you.
If share investing is something that you are interested in then I highly recommend reading the book by Simran Kaur called Girls that Invest. This book is written by someone much more knowledgeable about share investing than I am, and will teach you all of the basics you need to know that will set you on the right track.
So, what do I think about the Sharesies App?
I love it.
I know Sharesies has had a bit of a bad rap lately for putting up its fees, but I haven’t been put off by that at the moment. Granted, there might be other platforms that have lower fees but I do really love the simplicity of it.
What specifically do I love?
- I love that you can automate your investing. For me that is a super big time saver. You can load an automatic payment to your bank account to transfer a set amount into your Sharesies wallet each week so you don’t have to think about transferring money. You can then set up an auto-invest to invest your money into your chosen shares.
- I love that you can invest a little bit at at time. This means that if you can start your investing journey if you only have a few dollars available each week. This makes share investing through Sharesies super accessible.
- I love that the app has lots of information about the different share options and how they are performing. You can look at how the shares have been performing at different time intervals such as one year and 5 years.
- I love that everything is easily available in an App that is right there on my phone. I can check my balances, make share purchases and sell shares with a few clicks in the App. I don’t have to have a broker, or log into any desktop apps, or anything like that. Simple!
Are you interested in signing up for Sharesies?
We have a refer a friend link for you to use! If you sign up via our link we’ll each get $5 added to our Sharesies account. Just click here to sign up and claim your free $5!! Just make sure to have your ID handy as you’ll need that to complete the process!
Best of luck with your share investing!
Kellie
** P.S. This post is not intended to be financial advice. We are sharing our experiences, but please ensure that you make your own informed decisions about share investing. **