If you were to take the time to look at someone who’s very successful you would find that, no matter what they do, they have certain habits that they never break, and those habits are the backbone of their success.
It’s the same thing with successful investors; they do certain things habitually that lead them to success. With that in mind, below are 5 Habits of successful investors that, if you want to be successful at investing yourself, you should definitely copy. Enjoy.
Habit #1: Successful investors save regularly. If there’s one key to being a successful investor, it’s that you need to save money all the time, even if you have to force yourself to do it. What we mean by that is setting up things like payroll deductions and scheduling online transfers so that your money is saved for you automatically.
Habit #2: Successful investors are extremely patient. While you definitely want to monitor your investments, keep an eye on your credit reports, watch the stock market occasionally and keep abreast of what’s going on, the best thing you can do is sit back and let the market, and your investments, take care of themselves. Long-term investors have always done well, historically.
Habit #3: Successful investors create a strategy, set goals and take action. Have you ever written a to-do list? That’s what successful investors do all the time, and then take action on the things they have on their list. They create a strategy, based on their knowledge of the market, and take action on that strategy. If it doesn’t work, or needs to be changed, they make those changes.
Habit #4: Successful investors do their homework. Let’s face it, investing isn’t easy and being successful at investing is just plain difficult. You can make it a lot easier by doing your research, reading white papers, attending seminars and otherwise educating yourself. There’s so much information out there, and so many viable information streams available, that there’s really no excuse not to. Successful investors are always increasing their knowledge so that, if an opportunity arises, they can make a decision and take a vantage of it.
Habit #5: Successful investors know went to say “no”. Habit #4 is very important for this habit, because an educated investor will know when an opportunity is a good one, and more importantly, when it’s not. Being able to say no and not second-guess yourself is extremely important, maybe even more important than being able to spot an excellent opportunity and take advantage of it. The reason is simple; a good investment will make you some money, but a bad investment might lose you a lot of money.