You have a full time job and a family. How do you squeeze out time for yourself to learn investing?

Everyone has different priorities in different stage in life, and that's totally understandable. For me, as simple as it might sound, we always have a choice in what we want to do. It's all about "allocating" the priorities. To answer your question, I choose to read updates from my investing community rather than general market news (for eg). It's about choosing which "makes more sense" to you.

It's never easy, and sacrifices have to be made sometimes, but at the end of the day, we all made the best choice we see fit at any point in time :)

Investing is just another skill. I know many people picking up a musical instrument in old age, attempt at switching careers all together, and even learning a whole new language or two in hopes of migrating elsewhere.

If you have the dedication and the hunger, you will find the time. Absorb information from all sources of media, written, audio, video, and try your hands at it.

The great thing about investing, is that you don't have the Warren Buffet to make a decent return. Like learning the guitar, you don't have to be Carlos Santana to carry a tune.

I create a mind map on what is it I think is necessary to survive the stock market.

Then I begin to seek the answers like the missing parts of a jig saw puzzle!

I set a target to what I want to achieve in a certain timeframe and have weekly goals on !

This way in future, it gives me something to reference whenever I forget Or get rusty. ​​​

One of the reasons why I attended a paid course was because I needed to shorten my learning curve.

It was a great eye opener. The course had pre-workshop video materials which I could visit and re-visit in my own time, and the workshop was an intensive one day affair.

I guess that really sparked the idea in me that it's either you plan out some time to learn investing, or you will have to sacrifice something somewhere. In the end, I chose to sacrifice my leisure time, which meant that I did cut out some of my hobbies to free up time.

Everyone is different.

Find a way that can really work for you. I have heard of full time mums who can learn investing while on the go. I know of a friend who gets home at 10pm, and studies investing till 2am.

If you want it to happen, it can ahppen :)

Hi Wallace!

It is tough to learn an extra skillset especially when you have a family to rtake care of. What I would suggest is read books during your way to work/home, that is an extra hour a day. You can spend 30min watching online videos during lunch time to further enhance your knowledge.

Compound that 1.5 hour by a week you have 10.5 hour.

Compound that 1.5 hour by a month you have 42 hour.

It is how you choose to manage your time that will determine your success level!

1. Read investment books or listen to podcasts during your commute, be it on train, bus or car. You gotta commute anyway, it's a matter of what you do in that time! I do most of my reading on train rides.

2. Get the family in on it.

It could be pretty fruitful if say, your spouse is interested in investing, and you both could discuss matters.

3. Join a like-minded community to better focus your learning.

Find a supportive wife and let her know that you need to spend time to master investing!

Commuincation is key, I guess! All the best, Wallace!

Plan your time carefully. setting aside some reading time for materials/news at night before sleeping is a good way to start. It allows you to stay up to date.

Read 1 page a day, 365 days = 365 pages​​​

Well, these days we have smart phone or tablets. While travelling on Bus / MRT , we can:

1. Download e-Book of all the financial books to read and learn. Take notes using the build in notes app or Onenote.

2. We can also read Seedly blog, the recommeded financial blogger blog post etc.

Since we at least travel to and from Home / Work / School , that is the best use of time to learn and improve.

If you're driving, can also listen to financial podcast, available mostly free while driving.

To select , I'll go for some recommendations, read a few chapters to find out if is suitable in what i want to learn / grow on.

To me, basic financial is most important, read about all the insurance, budgeting, credit cards, debts management, financial planning and then read everything financial to know at least 30 to 40% then decide which one I would like to focus on more and come back later for some other area.

For good financial books to read, see this:

https://www.sgbudgetbabe.com/2017/07/recommended-books-on-personal-finance.html

or

https://financialhorse.com/top-8-must-read-investment-books-for-singapore-investors-in-2020/

These are enought to help us "level up" or keep us busy for 2020 while travelling :D

Happy Leveling up!

There are many bite-size articles you can read while in the toilet, in the mrt, in the bus, etc.

You can slowly build up your knowledge and bookmark those that you feel will be relevant in the near future.

Find a financial writer that you feel comfortable with and browse through their articles. If it fits you, you can slowly expand from that one writer to others. Eventually it will become a habit.

I would say reading books and watching video of investing during your free time.

It can be during travelling, before sleep, before work, after work, during lunch or any free time that you have that you used to watch netflix or youtube.

Otherwise paying to learn will definitely make you make your money worth.

I write cool stuff about personal finance and money-saving hacks here.

Rome was not built in one day.

Neither is the investment journey done in a day.. or weeks or even months.

you learn a little from books, a little from making mistakes, a little from facebook groups and forum like seedly, and a little from everywhere..

and then u learn more from mistakes.

mistakes and experience.

Just take time out daily, like an hour a week to read up.

in weeks and months, you will be a lot better in investment and the knowledge to it.

if it all fails, go for robo advisers :D

The trick is do it a little, daily.

every day just 30 minutes (or less if u have no time that day)

a little a little every day will add on to a lot

You just need to learn some new concept daily, or relearn and rehash the concept on a day

(same applies to investing- a little dollar every day will add on to a lot by the time you retire)

You can just allocate time to specially to study. It does not take long, it can be as litte as 10min per day, so 1hr per week. The amount of content can just be scale according to your time limit. For example, i used to read tons of investment blogs when i used to have more time, now i used to read quick weekly updates and selective blogs.

If you are really interested in something, you do not have to squeeze, you will find time and allocate time to it. Its like a type of self-motivation if it really interest you.

On the bus/train, while waiting for someone, when you are doing your business on your great white throne are some examples.

A 5 minutes here or 10 minutes daily multiply by many days of doing so will surely let you learn a lot in the long term!

The trick is that you are not learning "investing" via a fixed schedule and get certified after X number of hours.

Investing is a journey.

1. Read up often, wherever you find something interesting

2. Install flipboard on your phone, and set the interests to personal finances, investing, stock market etc.

3. Visit Seedly often for useful reminders and informations.

4. Read Seedly or flipboard stuff instead of Instagram when you have casual time.

You just read what interests you (then its not a "job") and slowly and surely learn new things. Its like 5minutes per day.

Only via time and with experience (thats why I always tell pple who lost money, don't worry, its normal and you are "richer" for it) then you will get better​​​

Squeezing time out should not be too difficult. A hobby or a catch up with friends may have to take a hit for that one time off to learn. Alternatively, during travelling time, one can choose to read up on investing. Last resort would be to take leave to learn.

One of the fastest way to learn is through someone who has been there, done that. It will likely shorten the amount of time needed, depending on how active one is during Q&A sessions.

Lastly, you never know which is the right way. You can only know which is the suitable way after going through it. Just like one never knew salted egg would be such a huge trend and quite a few stores can actually make a business out of selling salted egg related products.

I started learning investing by reading books - here's my list https://www.sgbudgetbabe.com/2017/07/recommended-books-on-personal-finance.html

I also wrote about my investment approach here https://www.sgbudgetbabe.com/2017/05/my-investment-approach.html

But as life got more hectic, I found going for paid courses extremely useful. And I also spend time on commuting reading / during weekends. It is up to us to manage our time so we can squeeze in some learning! A few minutes each day adds up to a lot. Jiayou :))​​​