Reading the (yes, 99% miserable + moaning) news something really stuck out to me: the fact that there were so many articles telling us how youngsters don’t have ANY money to invest.

What with the cost-of-living crisis pinching us in our backside and inflation gobbling our savings, we don’t have anything left, right?

Wrong.

All of this is clickbait. It’s designed to freak us out cuz let’s be real fear sells. And what better way to freak out gen z than by saying we’re all doomed. 

Nearly 3 in 4 gen z say that the current economic environment has made it much harder to save. But we’re not – as the media would suggest – doing nothing! (Read here why nothing gets us going like a financial horror but you should ignore it).

75% of us are finding ways to earn more (read here 5 of the simplest and most underrated ways you can start earning money). We’re a resourceful gen and we don’t sit around waiting for the gov to bail us out!

Spoiler alert: that ain’t happening.

34% of us are changing jobs to earn more money, 31% of us are turning our passions into things that pay and 26% of us are taking on more work and 23% of us are even taking on a job we don’t like! 

Put your money to work, now!

We’re not afraid of hard work and all of this means we clearly have money to invest. Even setting aside £50 each month and making that a regular habit, your future self will be loads better off.

If you’re able to that for 50 years, invest £50 each month come rain or shine, you’ll have £274k! This is NOT a typo! See for yourself – crunch the numbers.

If you raise that to £100 you’ll end up with £547k!! (Psst: all this assumes an annual growth rate of 7% which is a little under the 8% average so I’m being kinda conservative!) See what small sums over a long period can do for you?? 

Ignore the news. Most of it is nonsense anyway! 

Please, please, please I am begging you to ignore all the media garbage. Anyone and everyone can be an investor but more importantly, you can get started with small sums of money and build from there. (Psst: read here how to master these 7 money moves to give your money a big fat boost).

There’s a gigantic myth (that’s gone on for too long) and that is that if you want to invest you’re gonna need tons of dosh. Utter nonsense.

Now, we can open an investment account in under 10mins and start our journey with as little as £1.

Gone are the days where you needed to invest a minimum amount. 

You don’t need big sums to get started

My friend told me how she felt like she couldn’t start saving since she didn’t have much to get started with but what’s the use in waiting to save until you’ve got a lot?

That kinda misses the point. Start saving by starting small. That’s the whole point of saving.

By putting aside small sums of money every month, you’ll end up with bigger sums.

Don’t think you need loads to get going. It’s just not the case!

But somehow this is the narrative that creeps in. We think investing and saving is for people with lots of money. Nuh-uh.

Saving + investing is how you become one of those withs lots of money! 

They hide behind clever words and try to intimidate

The industry likes to intimidate us. They hide behind cloaks of jargon and bully us with complex words (more like pages of it) and make us feel like they’re the only ones who can do it.

Investing doesn’t have to be like that.

It’s a minority sport when it should be a majority one! Why is it fair that only rich people invest? The ones who need to invest and who should be investing are youngsters like you and I. (Read here why not enough of us are investing and why that’s a bigger problem than you realise).

We seriously needs the stock market to beef up our money so that we might actually have a shot at buying a place of our own (someday!)

But none of this is gonna happen if we don’t feel like investing talks to us or if we’re ashamed at the fact that we don’t understand a darn thing. 

We don’t feel like it speaks to it

The other week I attended an investment conference. The audience was yup – you guessed it; white, male, rich and in their 50s.

The theme of the day was how to get more youngsters invested. And the fact that we’re really not investing like we should – if at all.

But marketing their funds to us is not going to solve the problem. It all starts with education. If they want our money they should educate us first!

But everyone thinks it’s everyone else’s problem. 

We have it all, at our fingertips

The good thing about the internet (and social media) is that you can find out all you need. 

You don’t need a guy in a starched suit to tell you how to invest your money (making you feel like a total idiot in the process).

If you’ve found it here to my blog you’re doing something right! But seriously, do your own research. Never stop learning.

The more you learn the more comfortable you’ll start to feel with all these concepts. 

All this finance stuff seem daunting at first since that’s how they want it to be (so many would be outa jobs if we could do a good job of it ourselves!) so look under the bonnet and get learning.

Knowledge is power. It’s something no one can ever take away from you. 

So, whether you can afford to invest £50 p/m or £500 p/m the key is to get going!

Make this a habit of yours, set up a direct debit for this and know that this money is going straight to your future.

Invest as much as you possibly can. Especially when you’re young.

That’s when you’ve got serious time on your side. Oldies wish they had what we’ve got now. Don’t let a good thing go to waste. 

Small is mighty.

Everything starts from something small.

Consistency and time will give you those returns you’re after.

Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise! 

Disclaimer: This blog is not investment or financial advice. It is my opinion only. This blog is not a personal recommendation to buy/sell any security, or to adopt any such investment strategy. Always do your own research before you commit to any investment