Money, Money, Money. Love it or hate, the concept at least governs just about every major and not so major decision we make every single day. In fact, it’s not the just decisions we make, but rather the decisions we can make and it’s the latter that can at times drive us to do all sorts of things in an attempt to make as much of it as possible.
Certainly, this past year has not helped and as British families throughout the UK continue to feel the financial pinch after months of lockdowns and restrictions, for many of us, it’s going to have to get a little worse before it can get better.
Now, taking control of your finances doesn’t just start with a good budget and financial plan, to get to do all the things we want to do, like providing for our families and creating exciting opportunities for them, means that supplementing our income is now a top priority for many British families, and many of us are turning to online trading and investments to do that. However, that rise in interest in online business has increased also the number of scammers who are chomping at the bit to relieve us of our hard-earned pounds.
Many online sites provide legitimate and well-documented services for ordinary people to not just trade online, but learn how to do so too, so we’re certainly not saying that all sites are created equally evil - quite the contrary.
So, we’re going to look at just a few of the inns and outs that you may find useful if you’ve been thinking about investing or trading online.
First, get a handle on your finances.
The obvious place to start is to first get a thorough idea of what your finances look like, to begin with. This begins with taking a sobering look at what your balance sheet looks like and also what your goal sheet looks like for the year ahead. There are likely to be some discrepancies here between what you’d like to do and what you can do, but placing a “pound amount” on those discrepancies will go some way to helping you determine how much your income needs to be supplemented by.
This is useful because knowing that will also help you determine what kind of online trading or additional work you could undertake to help you create additional income.
It is, of course, OK for you to spend your money, but you need to do it responsibly and with your eyes wide open, so while you’re planning your year ahead, remember to keep those numbers at the bottom of your bank statement in mind.
Now, start learning.
Remember the adage, you’re never too old to start learning? Well, it is very, very true and when it comes to your money, you should take every bit of precaution and care possible to ensure that you are best placed to control your destiny and this includes your financial destiny.
This article by online site Investopedia, offers some sage advice and resources to help you get started learning about the sometimes volatile world of online trading, but here are a few things for you to consider:
Consider ‘safe’ browsing: The very first thing that you need to do when you start trading online is to make your trading as safe as possible and this begins with making your device as safe as possible. So start securing your PC, mobile devices as well as your internet connection. NEVER make use of websites that don’t have valid security certificates and don’t browse unsecured websites either.
Use a VPN connection: A VPN or virtual private network is a virtual network that places your IP address in a different location to where you are, and makes it much more difficult for hackers to track and trace your activity. VPN’s are easy to use, inexpensive and an online search will show you the top VPNs for your budget and location.
Choose strong passwords: No, your pets name followed by’123’ is not going to cut it, the strongest passwords contain:
At least 8 characters—the more characters, the better.
A mixture of both uppercase and lowercase letters.
A mixture of letters and numbers.
Inclusion of at least one special character, e.g., ! @ # ? ] Note: do not use < or > in your password, as both can cause problems in Web browsers.
It could also be a good idea to make use of a password manager, that will help your device ‘remember’ your passwords and keep them safe.
Start Small.
Once you have a handle on the type of online trading you want to do, whether it’s forex, cryptocurrency or stocks & bonds, the advice thereafter is to start small. It can be tempting to want to chase those big numbers, especially when you’ve yielded good results with smaller amounts. The temptation to chase is inherent in the human condition, but so is - temperance. Beginners luck aside unless you have a truly well-developed gift or talent for financial management, most of us are going to have to take a few losses before we start finding our ‘stride’. So, start small. Invest with amounts that you can and fully expect, to lose.
This won’t cause a disruption to your families financial status and will mean that you are better placed to take bigger risks later on.
Follow the money.
Speak to your banker for some advice. In Britain, you’ll find a treasure chest of resources to guide you and you may find that your bank has a platform that you can download and operate on. Not only does this give you the security you want as banks are regulated by law, but should things go wrong you’ll also enjoy the legal protection of the law too.
Now, should you be the victim of online fraud, it is important that you don’t stay silent. Hackers and scammers are relying on you being embarrassed or afraid to seek help, when you may be surprised at how many of them are caught. If you’ve been the victim of online fraud, then seek the advice of investment fraud lawyers.
We don’t want to put you off, rather we want you to be as informed as you can possibly be, so we hope that this post has encouraged you to get armed with as much knowledge as you can so that when you do start your online investing and trading journey, you’re as safe and protected as possible.
*Contributed by Sam Jones. *Image By dawnfu
Twitter | Facebook | Bloglovin' | Instagram
Subscribe to GirlGone Dreamer by Email
No comments :
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.