Ellevest Investing Tips (Top 10 Do’s & Donts)

what is up everyone I'm rose and welcome back to my channel in this video I'm gonna tell you my top 10 do's and don'ts for the investing app Elvis it's time to get smart with your money so if you're interested in trying out Elvis or if you're already using it then keep watching before we get started I'd love for you to subscribe my channel is all about stock investing for beginners and it's my mission to empower everyday people just like you especially women to win at investing so make sure to subscribe and hit the notification bell for new videos like this every week what I love about Elvis is that it's 100% women run and women backed I stumbled upon this gif on Instagram and it perfectly captures how I feel about female owned businesses I know it's hilarious but all jokes aside these are my top ten do's and don'ts when using this app I'm gonna jump right in with the first do do understand what you're investing in when you don't understand what the hell your money is invested in you're never gonna feel completely secure so financial security is a mindset it's a mindset of financial confidence and that confidence only comes from understanding your money and from knowing that no matter what the economy does you'll know what to do and how to rise above it because Elvis is a robo-advisor you're basically outsourcing investing services so you don't have to understand what they're doing but it's not a good feeling to just blindly deposit your money somewhere and hope that it turns out well in this video I go into depth about how Elvis invests your money I don't want to repeat myself too much today in this video but basically when you invest with Elvis there algorithm creates a portfolio for you of stock funds and bond funds and the percentage of stock funds versus bond funds as well as which specific funds go into the portfolio are all statistically proven to help you achieve your financial goals for example I have a goal to buy a house for my parents in six years Elvis crunch a lot of numbers and decided on a portfolio with thirty six thirty six percent stock exposure and sixty four percent bond exposure and these are the specific funds they used based on historical data this gives me a 70 percent chance of having a hundred and nineteen thousand dollars or more to buy the house in six years those are pretty good odds worst-case scenario I have a little bit send the cash I deposited best-case-scenario I have way more money than I could have ever saved on my own because stock market gains did most of the heavy lifting for me so Elvis invests your money so that the downside of your investing risk isn't terrible but the upside can be very powerful that's why it's worth investing again check out this video because I take you on a tour of my account and I explain how all of this works next is one of my don'ts don't invest emotionally let's be really clear about this one fact the stock market creates wealth a lot of it the only reason people get burned is because they invest with their emotions versus with logic here's what I mean when the market is going up like this the average uninformed person gets excited about the prospect of making money so they buy here problem is they're late to the Train because most things after going up for a while go back down so when the market drops they get scared and then they sell at a loss buying on greed selling on fear this is how most people do it when you invest with Elvis your money immediately gets put into a portfolio that looks like this and some of that portfolio is gonna be in some pretty volatile markets emerging markets like Brazil India China South Africa these markets are high growth high volatility so there might be a day when you log into your account and see that your portfolio is down 10% 20% during the 2008 recession it was even more than that so naturally you'll feel scared but you have to stay the course Elvis invests your money in portfolios that are statistically proven to get you results so stick with the plan and don't flip-flop when the market is going through a rough time so if you ever feel scared I suggest you wait at least 24 hours before you sell or withdraw your investments this will force you to think through your decision before you do it so you're less likely to do anything that you'll regret later this is a perfect segue into my next do do have cash reserves it's much easier to stay rational about your investments when you have cash reserves cash reserves to pay rent next month cash reserves to cover emergencies cash reserves that enable you to be a little more detached from the day-to-day move of your Elvis account balance not only that but if something horrible happens like you get laid off from your job you get injured or whatever you won't have to sell your investments at fire sale prices just to cover your living expenses because if your timing is unlucky it could be a really bad time to sell in the market say right after a downturn and if you sell then you won't be invested anymore to make your money back when the market recovers a good rule of thumb is to start with a $1,000 emergency fund and then work up to an emergency fund that could cover three to six months of living expenses just make sure you have enough cash on hand so that you won't have to dip into your investments when there's an emergency and now for tip number four don't save for other things until you have something for retirement when you open an account at Elvis the first thing they ask you is what goals you're investing for you can add up to five goals and it's tempting to just add all the things keep in mind to always prioritize retirement why because you won't be working in your old age so you need to have investments to live off of all the other non retirement goals like buying a house starting your own business you have your best earnings ahead of you in your 30s 40s and 50s so you're gonna find a way to pay for those things eventually when you're retired you won't be bringing in a salary so it's really important to have a nest egg for that plus there's just nothing cute about being a bad lady it just ain't cute moving right along to my next that do do choose the impact portfolio Elvis knows that women like you want to invest into things that you believe in when you start investing at Elvis you have a choice between two portfolios the core portfolio and the impact portfolio one of the funds in the impact portfolio is the PAC's elevate global women's leadership fund this fund invests in women lead companies and its mission is to help close the gender gap by investing in companies that value women's leadership another fund in the impacts portfolio is ESG D which contains only companies that meet high environmental and social standards so the eldest impact portfolio helps you build wealth while also making sure that your investment dollars are supporting companies that make the world a better place next time you're out of gold to yo