Because they are just beginning, early-career accumulators, roughly defined as those in their twenties and thirties, usually do not have much financial capital (unless they be technological geniuses or top models). Not only are their incomes often low compared to what they will be in the future, but new graduates may also be struggling with student loans.
However, early career accumulators have other assets that their older counterparts may be jealous of. With a lifetime of income in perspective, people at the beginning of their career are full of what researchers call human capital: their ability to earn a living is by far the most important asset.
Investors in their twenties and thirties also have valuable assets in terms of investment: with a lot of time ahead of them before they have to withdraw their money (for retirement at least), investors early in the career can better control the power of compound interest. They may also tolerate more volatile investments that, over long periods, are likely to generate higher returns than safer investments.
If you start venturing into investing, it’s hard to go too far wrong if your motto is to invest as much money as you can and stick to well-diversified core investments. But it pays to think about your “investments” in a broad sense and direct this hard-earned money to opportunities that promise the best return on your investments given the time you have. For most people, this will require juggling a bit with multiple tasks: rather than waiting for your student loans to be repaid before you start investing in the market or save money to pay, for example, a down payment on your purchase. ‘a house,
Here are some tips for investing well and, yes, for juggling these tasks in your twenties or thirties.
Put the debt back in its place
One of the first choices many accumulators have to make once they start earning a salary is to spend a portion of it on debt or investing in the market. If they are dependent on a credit card or a student loan whose interest rates are particularly high, it is appropriate to reserve most of their money available for these “investments”, the reason being that it is You can not earn a guaranteed high income equal to the interest rate on your repayments, while removing a debt brings you a guaranteed amount equal to your interest rate. Generally, investors holding debt whose rate of interest is 5% or more would do well to focus on repaying it (or refinance it with more favorable terms) before rushing full steam on stock market investments. An exception: the constitution of an emergency fund (see below).