What to consider when investing for the first time

Are you considering investing for the first time? With so much complicated jargon within the investing industry, no one would blame you if you’re feeling a little daunted with what to do with your money.

That’s why we’ve created True Potential Investor to be straight-forward and accessible for everyone. We’ve made investing simple with our award-winning technology, and our Fully-Managed Investment Portfolios are designed to be effective in their aim to maximise your returns, and reduce your risk.

Here’s some things to consider when investing for the first time….

Reputation

You want to make sure you have invested your money with a reputable and well-established business. True Potential has a decade of experience, and our partners are some of the world’s best-known investment fund managers – UBS, Allianz, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Columbia Threadneedle, Schroders, SEI, Close Brothers and 7IM.

Our customers have been kind enough to rate us an “amazing overall rating” of 4.88 out of 5 on Smart Money People. Likewise, Boring Money ranked us top for customer recommendations (91%) in the online investing field.

Where you’re investing

Investing in our awesome Fully-Managed Investment Portfolios could help you to do more with your money. Our expert in-house team spread your investment across thousands of global holdings, working alongside fund managers such as UBS and Goldman Sachs. These relationships give us access to 9,000 experts in 200 locations, giving us a level of global diversification which aims to reduce risk and maximise growth. Our access to a global team of experts with thousands of holdings allows us to blend multi-asset investment strategies and create unique opportunities for growth.

What account type?

The first thing you’ll have to decide when building your Fully-Managed Investment Portfolio is what account type do you want to open? If your goal is a retirement fund, then a Personal Pension could be what you are after.  Alternatively, a Stocks & Shares ISA or General Investment Account could be suited to your needs.

You choose the account type, then we manage the investment. All of the accounts we offer are invested in our Fully-Managed Investment Portfolios. Once you have chosen the account, our expert in-house investment team will invest your money across thousands of holdings, where they’ll also blend multi-asset investment strategies, with the aim of global diversification which could help to reduce risk and maximise growth.

Affordability

One of the most obvious things to consider is how much can you afford to invest?

Our online assessment will help you come to this conclusion, with our affordability test taking into account factors such as your income and outgoings.

Based on how much you can open your investment with, and how much you can invest each month, you can get an idea of how long it could take to reach your goal.

Emergency funds 

Before investing, you need to make sure you have enough money put aside for any unexpected events which life may throw your way. You never know when you’ll need to get your hands on some cash quickly, so we recommend keeping at least three months’ worth of regular expenses in an account separate from your investment.

Consider your assets and debts

It is all well and good if you are making money on your investments, but that could then be meaningless if you are burdened by expensive debt. With this in mind, consider your assets and debts before starting your investment journey. Personal debt, such as credit cards and loans, can be expensive and you should consider making overpayments before investing.

Your investment experience 

Consider any previous investment experience you may have had. It’s important that you’re sure of what your investment entails. If you aren’t sure, we’ll endeavour to give you more clarity during the ‘investment experience’ stage of our online assessment. You can also use the live chat feature to ask any questions of our customer service team.

How much risk to take

One of the things you may be most nervous about as a new investor is the prospect of losing money. It is true, you could lose money in a fund of Stocks & Shares, as markets do go down as well as up.

However, you need to keep risk in perspective. Risk is what gives you the opportunity for growth in your investments.

Markets do fluctuate, which is why it makes sense to invest for long term goals. As mentioned in the previous point, our Fully-Managed Investment Portfolios “don’t put all of your eggs in one basket” as your investment is globally diversified. The principle of this is that if one region underperforms, there’s a chance that another region could be able to prosper as a result.

When setting up an account with True Potential Investor, our online assessment will ask you a series of questions to determine your attitude to risk. Based on this, you can invest at a level of risk you are comfortable with. Our risk types range from defensive to aggressive.

Get going!

The important thing now is to get going! Time is a major factor when investing, the longer you invest for means the more time your money has the potential to grow.

It is quick and easy to get started. Take our online assessment to identify your risk level and affordability, then leave the hard work to us. Investing little and often over the long term could be enough to reach your investment goals, so get started today and get closer to your aspirations.