My Adventures in Downhill Skiing

Today, at the age of 44, for the first time in my life I put on a pair of downhill skis and went skiing.

I fell, crashed, and feared numerous injuries as I sped down the hill at increasing speeds. Yet all around me 10 year olds and teenagers decades younger than me had no fear and comfortably glided past me. Some of them had probably been skiing since they were 5 years old. Just think about it a 10 year old skier already had 5 years of experience compared to my 25 minutes of experience, and that made all the difference.

On the hill today, it occurred to me that perhaps my fear, my failure of understanding the nuances, my lack of experience is probably similar to what inexperienced investors feel when they start investing for the first time. For some people the fear is so overwhelming that they never start investing. As I starred at the descent in front of me for the first time, I did consider not starting, I thought about removing my skis and walking down. But the only way to confront your fear is to face it head on. I made it down the hill, and then proceeded to complete 8 runs today.

There’s no magic formula, no mantra, no inspiring quote to help you confront your fear of investing. The only way to get over your fear is what I did……face it head on. When learning to ski you start on the small hill first, so it goes with investing…..start small. You don’t need $50,000 to starting investing, start with $100, $200, or $500. I started on the bunny hill at very slow speeds and then built up my confidence to go faster.  Start investing today, start collecting dividends, and you’ll gain the confidence to make larger investments.

I started today with a ski class in the morning, to learn the basics, and keep myself safe before tackling the large ski runs. This is why I created my online Simply Investing Course, to teach you how to invest, and keep you and your money safe.

Confront your fear, start investing today, and your future self will thank you. I recently heard from a student of mine, he stated this year alone he will earn over $17,000 in dividends. Even if he stopped reinvesting today, with dividend increases, he will accumulate more than $95,000 in dividends in 5 years! Starting to invest today makes all the difference.

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