How to Start Investing in 2024 (With a Robot!)
Article by Jonathan Weimers
The new year has begun and a range of investment opportunities await. While COVID has pressurised the economy in some areas, it has created opportunities in others. If you are new to investing and looking to get started but don't know how then why not ask a robot? I’m going to tell you what is a robo-adviser, how does it work and why you should consider it if you are looking for an easy way to start investing.
What is a Robo-Adviser Put simply, the robo-adviser is a robot that is going to fill the role of a financial adviser to help you invest. It's kind of like the Terminator but its mission is to make money.
How Does It Do This? The robot needs to get to know you better. Its going to ask you a bunch of questions about yourself, how much risk you like to take, what would you do with your money, what are your goals, how do you want to use your money and other exploratory questions like that.
Based on everything you told it, the robot is going to choose what it believes to be the right investment for you, its going to recommend how much your initial investment should be and / or how much you should contribute monthly and for how many years / months until it predicts your investment will mature and you cash in on a good profit. it will provide an investment plan for you and even predict the growth it believes it can make you. To sum up, you pretty much have a conversation with it about what you want to do with your money and it does everything to make that happen.
Why Should You Consider This? So why choose this over meeting with a human adviser?
1. This is such an easy way to get into investing because it can all be done right from your phone in a matter of minutes like with MrPhy.co.za
2. Fees are generally quite low with robo-advisers and the investment options out there are currently pretty good. With MrPhy you pay around 1.5% of assets under management. Great for them since they are getting that money without doing any work (the robot works) and you aren't paying much but getting the assistance you need
3. A robo-adviser can reflect your own wants and style potentially a lot better than a human adviser because you have such a direct input into what you want to do and how you want it to think. For example, the robot will behave based on your preferences and how you would behave
4. Lastly, thanks to the kinds of platforms you get robo-advisers on, you have all the power and control to stop the investment, sell it off when you want, how you want, pump in more money or change up the structure of how you fund it. There’s just a lot more control you have as the investor to play around and get what you want
In Summary If you want to get into investing and don't know quite how to start or where, google a robo-adviser, have an easy conversation with it about your goals and what you want then let it do the investing for you. You’ll generally have access to an easy to use platform so you can monitor it the whole time and step in if you want to. That’s investing done easy!