For Those Who Are Afraid of Investing, Try Buying Just One Share: Small-Scale Stock Investing for Those Who Have Only Ever Saved Money

Introduction

It’s okay to be afraid. Your first step can be just one share.
You are interested in investing, but you are afraid of losing money.
When you look at a stock price screen, the numbers move restlessly, and it feels difficult for you. The news talks about “stock prices plummeting” or “losing a large amount of assets,” and when you open the internet, unfamiliar technical terms appear one after another. You don’t even know where to start studying. If you’re going to lose the money you worked so hard to save, it feels safer to just leave it in a bank account.
There are quite a few people who have spent years thinking this way and never starting to invest.
Perhaps you, too, have worked diligently, avoided waste, and gradually increased your savings. Every time the balance in your bankbook increased, you may have felt a sense of security, as if your life was being protected. That feeling is not wrong. Savings are an important foundation that protects your life from unexpected events, such as sudden illness, unemployment, broken appliances, or expenses for your family.
Therefore, this book is not intended to deny the value of savings.
It is not a book that pressures you by saying,
“Savings are no good, so buy stocks right now.”
Furthermore, it is not a book that introduces ways to multiply your money several times over in a short period, or stocks that are guaranteed to rise.
What this book wants to convey is something much smaller and more realistic.
If you are afraid of investing, try owning stocks just once with an amount so small that the fear won’t threaten your livelihood. There is no need to move hundreds of thousands or millions of yen. Within a range that doesn’t affect your household budget, try buying just one share of a company. Even that alone will significantly change the landscape of what you see regarding investment.
For those who have never owned a stock, investment exists only in their minds. I might lose money. It might crash. The company might go bankrupt. Fearful imaginations can expand indefinitely. However, most of that is vague anxiety. Without being able to explain clearly even to yourself what is scary or how scary it is, you may keep it at a distance as “something dangerous anyway.”
However, once you actually own one share,
vague fear turns into concrete observation.
How do you feel when the stock price drops by 10 yen? Conversely, when it rises a little, do you want to buy more? How does the stock price react when company news is released? What is a financial statement? How do you receive dividends? Economic news that you previously skipped over will suddenly enter your view as information relevant to you.
The important thing is not to make money with your first share.
The first share is a small experiment to understand your own emotions and the mechanics of investment.
There will be times when the price drops immediately after you buy it. Conversely,
there are times when it rises unexpectedly. However, the success or failure of that experience is not determined by short-term
ups and downs.
What level of price movement can you watch calmly? What kind of information makes you anxious? When the stock price drops, do you try to investigate the company’s substance, or do you get scared and want to sell immediately? Knowing these reactions of your own can sometimes be a deeper lesson than reading dozens of investment books.
Just reading a book on how to swim doesn’t teach you the
sensation of entering the water. Even if you understand how to ride a bicycle,
you will wobble at first when you actually get on. Investment is the same. Knowledge is
necessary, but knowledge alone will not completely eliminate anxiety.
That said, there is no need to jump into deep water all of a sudden.
Check the coldness of the water in a shallow place where your feet can touch the bottom. Pedal slowly in a place where you won’t get seriously injured
even if you fall. The act of “buying just one share” in stock investment
is practice for that purpose.
Of course, one share does not mean it is absolutely safe. As long as it is a stock, the price can go up or down. If the performance of the company you invested in deteriorates, there is a possibility that the stock price will drop significantly. One-share investing is not a way to eliminate risk, but a way to learn about investing while keeping the size of potential losses within a range you can accept.
Do not misunderstand this point.
Just because it is a small amount does not mean you can choose randomly.
If you buy just because someone recommended it, because you know the name, or
because the dividend seems high, even if the amount is small,
you will develop the wrong habits. In this book, before buying your first share,
we will organize one by one how to ensure the safety of your household budget, where to look at a company, what to check when placing an order, and how to face your stocks after buying them.
The goal is not to memorize technical terms.
The goal is for someone with no investment experience to be able to make decisions while protecting their own money. That is the purpose of this book. Do not leave things you don’t understand as they are. Do not act just because of an atmosphere that it seems profitable. Do not close off all possibilities just because of the emotion of not wanting to lose money. Check the necessary information, have your own reasons, and take small actions. You will acquire that power.
When starting to invest, many people look for answers to “when should I buy?” or “which stock will go up?” However, no one can accurately predict future stock prices consistently. What you should acquire first is not the technique to find winning stocks, but a system that won’t destroy your life even if you are wrong.
Do not touch your living expenses. Do not invest money you plan to use in the near future. Do not borrow money to buy stocks. Do not touch things you do not understand. Do not get carried away by someone else’s enthusiasm. And do not invest an amount that will make you lose sleep from anxiety.
These modest principles may seem at first glance to have nothing to do with how to make money.
However, in order to continue investing for a long time, how you minimize failure is just as important as what you buy.
Rather than diving in all at once aiming for large profits, leaving room to learn from your mistakes over and over is far more valuable for a beginner.
You don’t have to wait until you are no longer afraid of investing.
You don’t have to force yourself to eliminate fear. Rather, the caution that makes you feel afraid becomes the power to protect your money. However, if that caution takes the form of “avoiding it for your whole life without knowing anything,” it will narrow your options.
Check what you can while holding onto your fear.
That is the attitude proposed in this book.
Buying your first share won’t suddenly change your life. It doesn’t mean you will have a lot of money coming in from the next day. However, a small door will open to a world you previously thought was unrelated to you. Your perspective on companies will change, you will start thinking about the flow of money, and you will begin to think about your future more concretely than before.
That change is the first profit.
You don’t necessarily have to buy stocks when you finish reading this book. Deciding that you won’t buy for now after learning is also a valid choice. The important thing is not to let only fear decide for you, but to be able to decide based on your own knowledge and criteria.
You, who have only ever saved money, already have great strengths. You have the habit of saving money, the awareness of trying to protect your life, and the caution not to jump into simple stories. There is no need to throw away those strengths. You just need to add one new option called investment to who you are.
You don’t need to start big.
You don’t need to be nervous about starting well.
It’s fine to stay afraid.
First, let’s start with just one share.

Chapter 1
“Being afraid of investing” is
not your weakness

1-1 It is natural for people who have lived only on savings to be afraid of investing

It is perfectly natural for people who have managed their money primarily through savings to feel anxious about stock investment.
Money kept in a bank account does not change significantly in balance from yesterday to today. If you deposit 100,000 yen, it usually won’t be 90,000 yen the next day, nor will it suddenly be 70,000 yen. The numbers displayed in your bankbook or app are stable, and that stability leads to peace of mind.
On the other hand, stocks are different. The price moves from the moment you buy them. It can be 100 yen higher than yesterday, or 100 yen lower. Even though you didn’t work to increase it or spend it on shopping, the asset value on the screen changes. It is natural for people who are not used to this movement to feel afraid.
The more you have continued to save, the more you have a sense of valuing every yen.
You have endured not buying things you wanted, saved a little bit every month, and built up money over time.
If you think that the money you saved in that way might decrease due to your own judgment, it is no wonder that your hand stops when pressing the order button.
Some people look at themselves unable to take the step into investing and blame themselves, saying, “I am a coward,” “I lack knowledge about money,” or “I lack decisiveness.” However, fear of investing does not necessarily stem from a lack of knowledge or weakness of will.
Rather, it is just that the way you have protected your money so far does not match the characteristics of stock investment.
With savings, not reducing your balance is a form of success.
In stock investment, it is impossible to completely avoid prices dropping temporarily.
With savings, doing nothing is an action that protects your balance. In stock investment,
you sometimes wait a long time for the company’s growth or the accumulation of profits. Even with the same
purpose of “protecting money,” the ideas used are different.
If you look at stocks without knowing this difference, every price drop seems abnormal. If it decreases even by one yen, it feels like a failure. The very fact that it goes up and down looks dangerous.
However, price movement and being reckless are not the same thing. Precisely because there is price movement, there is a possibility of loss in investment, and at the same time, there is a possibility that assets will increase. The important thing is not to eliminate price movement, but to keep it within a range you can endure.
For that purpose, there is no need to invest a large amount from the beginning.
If you use the method of buying just one share, you can experience the actual price movement and confirm the true nature of your fear. When the stock price drops, are you reacting to the amount of money? Or are you reacting to the feeling of “I failed”? Did you get anxious after seeing the news? Did you get anxious just by seeing the price drop? If it is a small amount, you can observe your own emotions relatively calmly.
The emotion of being afraid of investing is not a flaw to be erased. It is a normal defensive reaction of not wanting to lose money.
However, if the defensive reaction is too strong, you will reject everything before even investigating. You let go of the judgment itself, saying, “Stocks are scary, so I won’t think about them,” “People who invest are special,” or “It has nothing to do with me.”
What we aim for in this book is not to ignore fear.
It is a state where you are not controlled by fear and can receive only the necessary caution from it.
The caution you have had while continuing to save will be a great strength in stock investment as well. Do not jump in easily. Protect your living expenses. Doubt suspicious stories. Do not put large amounts of money into things you do not understand. These are essential attitudes for continuing to invest for a long time.
The reason you have been afraid of investing is not because you were weak. It is because you have valued your money.
What is needed from now on is not to throw away that caution, but to broaden the way you use it a little.