Make Money Moves with Planet Pink

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*this is not advice, just insight into the different ways I invest!* 

I’m a hardcore amateur when it comes to investing so almost everything I do is trial and error. 

I started off very slow with a CD account. 

A certificate of deposit is a time deposit, a financial product commonly sold by banks, thrift institutions, and credit unions. CDs differ from savings accounts in that the CD has a specific, fixed term and usually, a fixed interest rate. These are pretty safe investments and do not normally lose value. Your money being used by a bank who is using your money for a fixed period of time, simple as that.

After a few months I realized a CD may be safe but it’s a pretty slow way to grow money. 

I then turned to an app called Acorns. 

I heard about it from some people who were also unsure of how to get started and didn't want to waste time. The Acorns app is really user friendly and they make it easy for you to understand the basics of investing while growing your diversified portfolio. To fund your account you can go the traditional route and just deposit a chunk of money into your account or connect your debit or credit card and participate in their round-up program. Anytime you make a purchase on your connected card, the app invests the value of your change rounded up to the next dollar. So if you spent $2.40 on a pack of gum, it will invest $0.60 for you. Once your account is funded, you choose between 5 the portfolio options they provide based on your risk level. From ‘conservative’ to ‘aggressive’ your portfolio will invest in a combination of government/corporate bonds, small/large company stocks, international large company stocks, real estate stocks & emerging market stocks. There are a few other features I didn't mention but I would definitely recommend! Check it out here.

I appreciated the functionality of the app and how hands off it was at first but I became interested in the specific industries & stocks they were investing in for me and I figured I give it a go.

So finally I downloaded the Robinhood app. 

This app is another very user friendly way to invest. As a way to get in the game but not put all your money behind a single company, you can invest in ETF’s or exchange traded funds.

An ETF is an investment fund traded on stock exchanges, much like stocks. An ETF holds assets such as stocks, commodities, or bonds and generally operates with an arbitrage mechanism designed to keep it trading close to its net asset value, although deviations can occasionally occur. Think of it as a bundle of stocks that you can buy. Some of the ETF’s I’ve invested in are: 

HACK: this ETF is comprised of companies actively involved in providing cyber security technology and services. Some of the top holdings include: Cisco Systems, Inc., Palo Alto Networks, Inc & Akamai Technologies, Inc. 

SKYY: this ETF is comprised of companies in the cloud computing industry. Some of the top holdings include:  Amazon, Alibaba Group & Microsoft Corporation

ARKK: this ETF is comprised of companies poised to benefit from disruptive innovation in one of the three areas: industrial innovation, genomics, or Web x.O. Some of the top holdings include:Tesla, Invitae Corp. & Square, Inc. 

I also researched dividend investing and how it can be used for your benefit. I learned that it’s important to consider investing in companies that consistently pay dividends; and even better, ones that steadily increase their dividend payments. You can use the dividends these companies pay you and reinvest it into that company or somewhere else in your portfolio. The idea is to build on your dividends and have them snowball into quarterly/monthly payments you receive just from buying stocks from companies. 

These are the dividend stocks I decided to go with:

  • Realty Income (O)

  • Power Shares S&P 500 High Dividend Low Volatility (SPHD)* current pays monthly dividends of $0.14/share!

  • Medical Properties Trust (MPW)

Honorable Mentions: 

  • Waste Management (WM) 

  • Tesla (T) 

  • Sony (SNE) 

  • Virgin Galactic Holdings (SPCE) 

  • Pinterest (PINS) 

Get a free stock from Robinhood here!

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