What I learned after 10 years of investing, starting with only 2 points of knowledge

“I’ll start investing after I study more.”

My 10-years-younger self was thinking the same thing.

If I had to rate my investment knowledge back then on a scale of 1 to 10, it was probably around a 2.

I didn’t really know how to buy stocks.
I didn’t properly understand that taxes are levied on profits from sales, either.

Even so, I started investing.

And looking back now, I’m glad I didn’t try to understand everything from the start.

The first stock I bought was because “someone else recommended it”

What I started with first was individual stocks.

I even bought stocks like Pepper Food Service.

My reason for buying at the time was very simple.

“Because someone recommended it.”
Looking back, I think that was a very dangerous way to buy.

I hadn’t researched the company’s performance in detail.
I hadn’t thought for myself about why it would grow in the future.

I just bought it, believing someone else’s words.

And then, the stock price actually fell.

What I learned from that experience was:

“Have your own reason for buying.”
Now, I don’t buy just because someone recommends it.

I research it myself, and

if I can’t explain “why I want to buy this stock,”

I basically pass on it.

I stopped jumping on stocks that are skyrocketing

When you invest, you see stocks that rise sharply in a short period.

When I see such stocks,

I sometimes feel impatient, thinking,
“If I don’t buy now, it will go up even more.”

My old self might have bought on impulse.

But now, I stop for a moment.

In fact, I have seen stocks that plummeted after a sharp rise.

At those times, I thought,

“I’m glad I didn’t jump in at the peak.”
Of course, if it’s a stock I’ve been researching and targeting for a while, that’s a different story.

But if it’s a stock that suddenly became a hot topic and I wanted to buy it without really understanding it, I don’t.

I think just doing that has allowed me to invest much more calmly than before.

It was scariest before I started investing.

Before I started, I thought many times,

“What if I lose money?”

I even felt that opening an account was a hassle, and

there were times I thought, “Maybe I don’t have to do this after all.”
But when I actually did it,

I felt, “It’s more normal than I thought.”

Of course, since it’s investing, there is a possibility of loss.
However,

opening an account,

depositing money,

choosing a product,

trying to buy.

As I experienced these one by one, the things I didn’t understand became clear little by little.
In my case,
I didn’t act after understanding; I understood because I acted.
That was the order.

I started investing and began watching economic news

Before I started investing,

what happened to interest rates,
the yen getting stronger,
the yen getting weaker.

I had almost no interest in such news.

But things change when you start investing your own money.

I started thinking, “Will this news affect the stocks I own?”
Then, the economic news I used to ignore started to become interesting little by little.

Recently, I’ve also started thinking more about

“What industries will boom from now on?”

and “Which companies will benefit from this news?”
By starting to invest, I feel that not only my assets but also the world I see has expanded.

If I were to return to being a beginner now, I would act first

If I could tell my 10-years-younger self just one thing,

I would say, “You don’t have to wait until you understand everything perfectly.”
Of course, there’s no need to put in a large amount of money without knowing anything.

You can start with a small amount.

Actually open a securities account,

and buy a little bit.
If you come across words you don’t understand, look them up each time.

I think that repetition is enough.

Conversely, as I am now,

I wouldn’t actively get involved in speculation like crypto assets or FX,

where you try to predict price movements to aim for short-term profits.
That’s because investing by thinking carefully and continuing over time suits me better.

First, take a step. Acting broadens your perspective

Before I started investing,
I was full of things I didn’t understand.

But even now, 10 years later,
I don’t understand everything.

I’m still studying.
Even so, there are many things I understood precisely because I started.

Taxes.
How to buy stocks.
How to look at companies.
The meaning of economic news.

I didn’t know everything from the start.

I researched because it became necessary after I acted.
And I became able to understand little by little.

Not limited to investing,
acting broadens your perspective.

This is something I strongly feel after continuing for 10 years.

If you are currently stopped, thinking,

“I’ll start after I study a little more,”
it’s fine to start with a small step first.

That one step might lead to your future self 10 years from now.