stock market

Robinhood Review: Does This Investment App Live Up To The Hype?

Robinhood

What is Robinhood?

The Robinhood app debuted in 2013 as a first-of-its-kind revolutionizing free investment platform. Much like the 700-year-old story of the hero to the people, Robin Hood, FinTech entrepreneurs Vladimir Tenev and Baiju Bhatt created the platform in order to make stock trading easily accessible to the general public and not just the wealthy.

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Are Marijuana Stocks a Good Investment?

Back in 1997, you could buy a share of Amazon stock for around one dollar. Imagine if you bought one thousand of those shares and still owned them today (a share is currently around $2,100, almost a 120,000% increase)! The popularity of marijuana stock comes from the potentials of the industry–everyone's hoping to find a payoff much like early Amazon investors. With US marijuana sales expected to reach 23.4 billion by the year 2022, the market could possibly see exceptional trajectory growth in the stock market.

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marijuana stock

5 Tips for Overcoming Investment Regret

Investing for the future is a daunting task that most of us are not fully prepared for. Whether you want to minimize your risk or maximize your returns, you are bound to regret some loss or a missed opportunity along the way. Regret is inherent to the process, but once you've accepted that it's inevitable, you can begin to deal with the fallout. Here are five tips to help you move on when an investment doesn't go your way.

Know What You Want

Find the right balance for you

The surest way to magnify your regrets is to skip this step. If you jump on any investment that sounds tempting, without fitting it into your larger plans, you won't be happy with how anything turns out. So are you looking for sudden, big gains, or do you want the stability of a sure thing? Do you want a diverse portfolio, or a focused one? And how much of your money are you willing to put on the line? Once you figure out the balance you want, you can prepare yourself to let go of the missed opportunities or the losses that go along with your broader goals.

Don't Blame Yourself

There's no sense in beating yourself up

Seriously. Whether your money is going into individual businesses, mutual funds, or cryptocurrency, there are major risks involved, and no one can navigate those risks perfectly. Even if, in retrospect, some choice you made with your money was obviously wrong, you've learned something. Chances are that you didn't study investing in school, so the surest way to learn is to try, and any time you try something new, failure is on the table. So you screwed up and lost some money. If you have a broader plan, then it was money you were willing to risk. Mark off one mistake you'll never make again, and move on. Chances are it won't be your last mistake, but each one will make you a better investor.

Don't Be Reactive

If you let a mistake scare you off track, you'll just make another

The Atlantic

I once lost a large chunk of money on a risky investment in an individual company. Shortly after, I allowed myself to be talked into shifting money from another individual stock to a more secure real estate investment. There was nothing wrong with that real estate investment, but the stock I sold has since grown to over five times the original price. I let myself be scared away from a calculated risk because of one bad experience. Stick to your guns. One investment going sour does not predict that others will do the same.

Don't Chase Trends

You are not Nostradamus

You can't predict the future. The good news is tht you don't need to. If you were a day trader, you wouldn't be reading this, so don't try to jump on board with the latest exciting development, and don't jump ship at the first sign that an investment is trending down. You can't know when enthusiasm is peaking or pessimism is about to give way to a rebound. If you're willing to risk and experiment, you can move some portion of your investments around with the shifting financial winds, but don't lose track of the long-term. Siting on a smart investment is the easiest thing in the world, but it does take patience.

Pat Yourself on the Back

Give yourself some credit

Not everyone is even trying to prepare for their futures. The fact that you have regrets at all means that you're doing more than most. Give credit where it's due. You took some risks and they didn't all work out, but you're learning and improving. Years from now, when those lessons have paid off, the regrets you cling to now will look small next to the security that you're just now starting to build. Keep the big picture in mind and keep working.

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The Best Ways to Invest a Thousand Dollars

While you can technically invest any amount of money, many people only seriously consider investing their money when they have at least a thousand to spare.

If you've hit that 1k benchmark, you invest wisely and have some patience; you can grow your thousand into another thousand and beyond. Here are our top five suggestions for investing a thousand dollars.

Open a Savings Account

If $1000 is still a pretty significant chunk of money for you that you'll need to access quickly and easily in the future, a savings account is a safe, reliable investment option. You can open a savings account at a traditional brick and mortar bank, but an FDIC insured online savings account will offer you better interest rates in most cases. Citizens access offers a 2.35% and is a great place to start.

Buy an Exchange-Traded Fund

An ETF is a marketable security that tracks a stock index, a commodity, bonds, or a basket of assets. Bought and sold on public exchanges, the money you make from ETF's are typically taxed significantly less than other investors are for their capital gains. If you invest in a passive ETF, you also can probably avoid the high administrative fees and management costs that come with mutual funds.

Let Robots Invest For You

Robo-advisors operate much like human advisors, for a fraction of the cost. They take some of the best investing strategies and use artificial intelligence to implement them, giving you an actively managed investment portfolio with very little work on your end. The two most popular robo investor options are Betterment and M1 Finance.

Get a Certificate of Deposit

A certificate of deposit operates as a high yield savings account. This is another very safe option, as you'll know your money is safe and secure and FDIC insured as you get some pretty decent returns. The important difference between this and a regular savings account is that you won't have easy, quick access to your money, but if you're willing to be patient, this can be a great option.

Invest in Bonds

While investing in bonds alone won't give you huge returns, they're a great option for diversifying your portfolio. There are lots of options for people who aren't up for high risk, such as Treasury bonds, savings bonds, and floating-rate notes (FRNs). The good news is $1000 goes a long way in bond investments.

Peer to Peer Lending

If you aren't familiar with the concept, peer to peer lending is best explained as crowdfunding a loan and then benefitting from the interest (along with all the other people who invested). This is easier than ever with services like Lending Club, where you can easily diversify your investments and gain higher interest on higher risk borrowers, reducing your own financial risk.

From Your Site Articles

stock market

What is Robinhood?

What do I need to open a Robinhood account?

Robinhood features

The Downfalls

Who is Robinhood Best Suited for?

Who

How

ETFs

OTCs

The Risks

Legal/Political Risks

Price to Sales Risks

Black Market Risks

Dilution Risks

The Bottom Line