5 reasons to feel positive about investing in 2023
Here's why 2023 could be a good moment to start investing - and feel pretty great about it!
1. Investing isn’t an exclusive club anymore
For years the world of investing felt like an exclusive club for the jargon-fluent and money elite - that’s no longer the case, at last! There’re plenty of tools out there to help you get to grips with your finances. Resources like Moneyhelper are free to use and cover everything from budget planners to tax and pensions guidance.
If you’re thinking about investing for the first time, you’re not alone! Do-it-yourself investing is at an all-time high. Boring Money’s Online Investing Report found that there are now over 9 MILLION DIY investment accounts in the UK – that’s a heck of a lot of people taking investing into their own hands! Investing needn’t be complex either, here at Dodl we aim to keep things affordable, simple and free from all that needless financial jargon.
2. Save your savings from inflation
Inflation has been getting a lot of airtime lately – with good reason, the UK’s current rate of inflation nears a 40 year high. This means our hard-earned cash isn’t worth quite as much as it once was, and money stashed away in a savings account may not be protected from the eroding effects of inflation either. This can leave us wondering how best to grow our savings for our long-term goals.
And this is where investing can help. While it’s important to remember that investing carries risk - investment values can fall as well as rise - by taking a long-term approach, investing regularly and keeping a diverse portfolio (investments across different regions, sectors and industries), you’re in a better position to beat inflation and see real growth on your savings.
3. You’re probably already an investor… so why not expand your horizon?
If you currently have (or previously had) a workplace pension, it’ll be invested for you by the pension scheme. Use the new year as an opportunity to learn more about what your current workplace pension is invested in and track down any old forgotten pensions you might have. They’re your retirement savings after all!
If you want to take more control over your pensions pots and decide for yourself how your retirement savings are invested, it might be worth transferring them to Dodl. Just make sure it’s the right choice for you first and check that you won’t lose out on any benefits before you transfer.
4. You can invest according to your interests and beliefs
Investments have come a long way since the old days. You can now choose index funds (or exchange traded funds) which track particular themes you’re interested in - like big tech or global healthcare. Investors are also pushing for more responsible investments. And it’s little wonder why… as well as investing in your long-term goals, you can also invest in companies leading the way with their environmental and social credentials. If this is something that interests you, you might want to check out Dodl’s range of responsible investments - including the ready-made AJ Bell responsible fund.
While investing can be a powerful tool for good in 2023, it’s generally important that you build up a balanced investment portfolio which includes a diverse spread of investments from different regions and sectors. This can help reduce your risk of losing money overall.
5. Investing to live, not living to invest
Investing shouldn’t take up all your time and energy! You can now automate the way you invest each month so you can get on with the more important things. With Dodl it’s easy to do just that by setting up a direct debit to your account and allocating this amount to your monthly investments. Investing this way is hassle-free and helps you build up your investments with small amounts over time.
As well as being hassle-free and easily accessible, investing monthly can help smooth out the returns you make on your investments. That’s thanks to a little something called pound-cost averaging. We dive into this in a little more detail in our getting into the investing habit article.
Feeling a little more positive?
2023 could be a good moment to start investing and feel pretty great about it actually! Dodl is here to make the whole thing as simple as possible and to provide helpful info and support every step of the way. Always remember though, investing does carry risk and, if you’re after personal advice you’ll need to contact a suitably qualified financial adviser, as Dodl doesn’t offer this.