Of all the mistakes we’ve heard, this is the most common.

“I have asked many customers to turn off their televisions and stop watching daily market news” Danielle Harrison, CFP based in Missouri at Harrison Financial Planning, tells Select.

While it’s okay (and generally advisable) to keep an eye on what’s going on in the global economy, it’s easy to get carried away by the excitement or sadness of it all. Markets are constantly changing and trying to keep up with real time can cause you to constantly check or change your investments when you are better off leaving them alone for the long term.

“You will likely perform worse than if you stick to your original strategy in the first place,” says Douglas Boneparth, New York-based CFP, president of Bone Fide Wealth and co-author of The Millennium Monetary Solution. Seeing negative performance without context can lead to thoughtless decision making, while positive performance can inspire overconfidence, says Joe Lum, CFP and California-based wealth advisor at Intersection capital.

Lum agrees that it’s best for investors to avoid tracking their performance (good and bad) too frequently. While it’s easier than ever to get instant information on how your portfolio is progressing, that doesn’t mean it’s necessary.

“If we were running a marathon, it wouldn’t make sense to track our mileage in quarter-mile increments,” says Lum. “The same can be said about long-term investments, especially in retirement accounts which traditionally have the longest time horizon.”

Before investing, Bonparth suggests asking yourself, “Can I hold these positions for a long time?” “

“Investing should be boring,” says Harrison. His advice? Review your investments quarterly, which should be more than enough for most investors.

Whether it’s participating in a GameStop stock frenzy, which we all saw in January, or investing in the latest cryptocurrency, chasing trends is a common mistake investors make.

Lauryn Williams, Texas-based CFP and founder of Is it worth it, says she sees investors following the next hot stock without knowing why they are choosing a particular investment, other than the fact that “someone else says it’s great.”

“A lot of investors make the mistake of chasing trends or what’s cool because of FOMO,” Bonparth adds. He recommends always doing your due diligence before putting your money on the market. Or, as another option for a more passive approach, invest passively in the markets through index funds and watch your portfolio grow over time. By using your brokerage account to buy mutual funds and diversified index funds, you take less risk than when you buy stocks in a sole proprietorship.

“I cringe at the misinformation surrounding investing and finance in general, especially on social media,” Harrison said.

The general guidance of the experts is simple: do not accept investment advice from those who do not know your personal financial situation. For example, you may feel pressured by someone on social media to start investing in a certain company, but they are not aware of other investment options you might have. You might be better off putting that money into your employer-sponsored retirement account, especially if your business matches contributions up to a certain percentage of your salary.

Be sure to do your own research when investing and find out who is giving financial advice on TikTok or another social media platform. Whether you are just starting out or are a more seasoned investor, a good place to start is to FINRA’s Free Online Learning Program for Investors.

When it comes to investing, time is of the essence. Ideally, you should hold your investments for as long as possible to maximize your returns. “Investing is something you do with the expectation of reasonable returns over the long term,” says Harrison.

One big mistake Williams sees is that investors bail out an investment because they haven’t doubled their money in a certain amount of time, which is usually a few days or weeks.

“If you need your money to grow urgently, you probably don’t have adequate savings,” she says. “Rapid growth is accompanied a lot of risk. More on this in Error # 5 below.

The biggest mistake Bonparth sees investors make is the people entering the markets before they build a solid financial foundation.

Before you invest, you need to be in control of how you spend your money. A big part of this is building up a cash reserve so that you don’t need to rely on your investments when you have an emergency or want to make a certain purchase.

“The stock market can be volatile, and you would hate to lose the money you save on something like a down payment on a home you wanted to buy,” Harrison says.

A good way to tell if you’re ready to invest is to find out if you have a good amount of money in a savings account set aside for all of your short-term goals. Harrison suggests that the money needed in a relatively short period of time, such as three years, should not be invested in stocks.

Once you’ve set aside a separate savings net that you can lean on, make sure you have clear goals when you start investing.

Harrison cautions that investing to make more money is rarely the goal. Instead, people should see money as a tool to achieve their other goals. A common mistake she sees is making investing about return.

“You don’t have to look for high returns that also correlate with higher risk if you can meet your goals adequately with less risky investments,” says Harrison.

Many investors use the S&P 500 as a benchmark for their investment performance, but Lum points out that this index is often not a fair comparison with individuals’ actual portfolios.

“While the S&P 500 serves as a rough indicator of how the market is going, it’s important to remember that your portfolio design and your performance must be aligned to meet your goals – not a clue that doesn’t know your financial situation, your goals or your time horizon, ”says Lum.

Finally, choosing never to invest is a costly mistake. Keeping all of your money in a bank account means that the money loses its purchasing power due to the rising rate of inflation.

“Some people are so afraid to invest that they never even start and lose the incredible aggravating effect that can occur in the long term, ”says Harrison.

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• Minimum Account
• Account types
• Account and advisory fees
• Customer service
• Available investment expenditure ratios
• Selection of investments
• Trading fees
• Technology available, including mobile platforms
• Educational tools and resources

After reviewing the above features, we based our recommendations on platforms offering the widest range of investment options, robust educational tools and resources, user-friendly technology, and fees and expense ratios. the lowest. We also looked at each company’s customer support structure, available lines of communication, and application reviews.

Note that with all trading platforms, there is no guarantee that you will get a certain rate of return or that current investment options will always be available. To determine the best approach for your specific investment objectives, it is recommended that you speak with a reputable fiduciary investment advisor.