I’m very interested in the topic of how you get yourself motivated to do something like learning to invest.  I frequently talk with friends and family members who are worried about their financial future.  They wonder if they’re doing enough but are so overwhelmed by all the information available that they don’t even know where to start or who to trust. 

I’ve been in an investment club for over 12 years now and I think one of the major benefits that I’ve derived from it is that it got me to address the issue of learning to invest at least once a month.   I’m wondering if any of you share that thought?

If I think back over those 12 years, I remember many many meeting days where I’d think  “I  don’t have time to do this”.  But, I still did something and went to the meeting.    I usually didn’t do as much as I thought  I should have but at least I did something.  If I hadn’t had that meeting to prepare for and go to,  month after month would have gone by and I’d be sitting here today,  no closer to being knowledgeable enough to do my own investing.  I’d probably be grasping around to try and find someone I could trust to “manage” my money,  but be uncomfortable that I was even asking them the right questions.    Because I hung in there, as I sit here looking back,  not only have I built up the value of my club account pretty painlessly,  I also have built up confidence and expertise to make my own investing decisions. 

I ran across an investing article recently where they listed the holdings of a top mutual fund manager in one of the top ranked mutual funds.   The majority of the names on the list were those I was very familiar with.  Either because I also own them or they’ve been recent topics of discussion or analysis within my club or within some of this communities activities.    It is possible to learn to choose good investments but you don’t learn if you don’t try.  I also think you don’t truly learn unless you actually make real investments.  A club lets you do that without a large personal financial risk.

You really do get somewhere if you make a commitment to start a club and then keep going, month after month, year after year.   Doing an activity with a group is a proven way to get and stay motivated.   In my case,  when I started,  part of my motivation was the fact that  my monthly club meeting was one of  the few activities I had that didn’t include small children.    My son is now grown, but as my personal financial situation depends more and more on the success of  my investing efforts,  my club is very important to me as a place to talk with people I respect about investment ideas.    I can’t imagine making investing decisions without the ability to discuss them with people I trust who are not trying to sell me something. 

When I look back, it’s really hard to believe I’ve been in a club for over 12 years.  I still remember vividly our first meeting and trying to figure out what we had to do to get started.   We just kind of held our breath and jumped in and everything worked out fine.  It has definitely been worth the time and it really hasn’t been that much effort.

I’m interested in getting some more input on the topic of motivating yourself to learn to invest.  What motivates you to address this issue?   Do you think you are doing enough to address your personal investments?  If any of you are interested in sharing your thoughts anonymously, I’ve made up a form you can use to do so.  You can find it at this link:

Motivation to Learn To Invest

Thanks in advance,

     Laurie Frederiksen

     www.bivio.com