Got some spare cash saved away, and want to start looking into building a financial portfolio and perhaps investing for your future? Putting your smartphone to good use every now and again, and spending your time on it productively rather than just for mindless social media scrolling and games, can actually help you to reach a better financial position before you’ve even noticed.
For those interested, here are a few different tips on how you can learn to invest successfully using your smartphone.
Getting generally financially savvy
To start with, the smartphone that you keep in your pocket at all times, and that you’re likely glued to for more time each day than you’d care to admit, is capable of a lot of different things. When it comes to finances, did you know that as well as providing a secure contactless payment option through fingerprint, or access to your online banking to check your balance when you’re out and about, that it can actually give you financial advice on your spending or help you to micro invest as a starting point?
If you’re someone that doesn’t know how much money they have in their account at any given time, or are unsure of their exact spending habits and how much they spend on little things here and there, take a look at some financial advice apps, such as Cleo, for example, which will give you recommendations in a friendly and informal way based on your spending habits. Ultimately, you should look at your phone as a tool that can help you to make informed decisions on the things you’re spending on here and there, as these things add up. From there, apps like Moneybox can build a growing pot, rounding up your inconsequential purchases and building you a small, budding profile to get going with.
Tip – For a full breakdown of some handy apps that can you help you to get a general grip of your financial situation and help you feel better about money, check out the blog post written by The Big Investment.
Learning about different investment strategies
It of course goes without saying that you’ve got a world of knowledge at your disposal with a smartphone, so think about how much money you’ve got to allocate to an investment project, and then from there think about the different asset types that might be right for you.
Investing in the property market is a more advanced, long-term investment strategy, and so you might need some more capital available and prior knowledge before going ahead on an investment decision of this magnitude. However, if getting started, you’d be surprised at the amount of mobile-friendly content out there that you can passively consume while on the go, helping you to build a foundation of knowledge that will then help you to make a well informed investment decision should you ultimately decide to go ahead with it. A good example of this is the buy to let guides, videos, and podcasts offered by RWinvest. Not only are their PDF guides in an easy-to-digest format, but their podcasts on the property market are available on a wide range of services, from YouTube to Spotify, meaning you can learn as you go or do other things.
Remember, apps are a great starting block to get you off the ground in the investment world, but there are plenty of websites, guides and books that you can be reading, too.