If only I had only known ...

Question

Lets share our best first mistakes with investing....

I can go first, I didn't know that dividends that are reinvested within one financial year affects your taxable income for that year.

I had assumed that it was only taxable if you redeemed the actual $ into your bank account or sold shares.

Answer

My first investment was $15,000 in 3 stocks based on a stockbroker’s recommendation – right before the GFC. It was all my savings at the time and two of the stocks went broke. I still think it’s criminal that stockbrokers can recommend anything other than ETFs for first-time investors.

Answer

My first mistake was not investing sooner! Although I was learning and reading about investing, it never felt like enough information to dive in.

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I just wish I realised sooner how simple everything could be.  And how instead of trying to fine-tune your investments, time is far, far, better spent elsewhere – either enjoying life, optimising expenses, or earning more income.

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I didn’t realise I had to do something with the paperwork after buying my first shares. I didn’t opt in to reinvest dividends or provide my bank details for approx 9 months 🤦‍♀️.

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Not investing regularly! At the start I would by large packages of shares and then never really buy again. I realised DCA’ing was a better fit for me, and it made me less as worried about price fluctuations.

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My first mistake was buying a stock because all the ppl at work were… I was 21 and didn’t know what the company did, or clearly value my own hard earned cash highly enough! I sold out a few weeks later at a loss. This was not the only time i made this mistake :(

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Mistake of Smiling at news reports when they talked about Markets Tanking thinking It was better to keep money in savings account, as I never invested until recently.

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Getting caught up in the thrills and spills of chart reading and the excitement of day trading until my get rich quick dream gave me a quick tease before being shattered completely🤑

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Not investing sooner because I was unsure and overwhelmed by the amount of information and options out there. Turns out that openly discussing money and investing with friends and family was very helpful and provided me with a lot of assurance!

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I’ve done a lot of guilty timing the market trades, ignoring whether it was profit/loss doing so I think the stress that it brings was not worth it. Had an unhealthy obsession with stock prices and news hehe.

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The very first share I bought was AFIC (AFI). I bought it because I read in the barefoot investor it was good. I thought it was a concrete (foundation) manufacturing company as I hadn’t read the book properly, and figured well australia has lots of construction so they going to need concrete. Was a significant amount invested, too. Looking back I’m kinda shocked at how stupid I was, but thankfully it didn’t end in tears as it was a pretty well run, diversified LIC

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Didn’t realise that not all shares payout dividends! Not the ones to pick if you plan on eventually living off the dividends and holding shares long term  (FIRE). Oops!

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My biggest mistake was messing around with bear ETFs without knowing exactly how they worked. They are very, very, short term! It was when Covid hit, and I thought there would be more of a correlation between economies and markets

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My biggest mistake was spending way too much time on research to find value and alpha but the end result after 3y was ending up with the same performance of ETFs. The precious time that you don’t get back, the time that you could have spent with family and having great experiences.

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I only wish I knew about Investing and  the benefits of compounding your money long term when I was younger.

Answer

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