IF you are at the point where you have decided to invest your money you should have determined, at this point, your why. Why are you choosing to invest – what is your investment goal?
The one thing you also need to comprehend from the outset is your personal attitude to risk. You may be the type of person who does not want to lose risk under any circumstances or you could be the person who is happy to live with taking a calculated risk. Work out which one of these you are because that could determine if you take the leap or not.
Even before speaking to a financial adviser you need to understand that no asset is totally risk free but different assets will carry different risk but assessing risk is something you can do with your independent financial adviser.
Why investments carry risk
There are lots of different ways to invest some of which include cash, bonds, ISAs, shares, cryptocurrencies, gold and silver, property, sustainable projects etc. There are so many investment opportunities, and, even though the assets themselves have risks, you also need to take into account further risks such as inflation, specific risk, changes in the stock market, currency and of course who is managing your fund.
Another huge risk of course are investment scams. For those of us on social media we see our newsfeeds often bombarded with adverts for this, that and the other and these people are very clever in terms of making something look great. We often have to think back to that old adage – ‘if it looks too good to be true, it probably is’ – the reality here though is, being too cynical, or being too suspicious, can prevent people from taking advantage of excellent opportunities and you could miss out. The flip side, however, is that you could fall victim to a scam. But, this is where your Worldwide Financial Planning independent financial adviser will have your back.
Investors lose so much money to scams some of which are so outright but yet so many still fall for them. You will likely have seen scammers target specific types of investments such as cryptocurrencies and you may also be aware of ‘cloning’ where scammers imitate genuine firms offering similar investments.
You will recognise the need to a professional here when it comes to investing. Your independent financial adviser will talk you through investment risk.
But a few simple things to remember – the more you want from a return, the more risk you’ll likely need to take; the more risk you take, there’s the risk of losing some, or all, of your capital.
Make smarter financial decisions and get in touch with Worldwide Financial Planning.
Our advisers are here to help you so please do get in touch. To contact our Northern Ireland office, call 028 6863 2692; our Cornwall office – 01872 222422 and you can reach our Southampton office on 023 8064 9674. If you prefer to email, please contact us on info@wwfp.net.
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