Study, research, look for investments. How to get started...

It's tough to teach people how to study, most people have never learned how to do research or think The majority of people know how to prepare for tests and exams. Preparing for tests and exams are key skills to have if you want to get good grades and for some specific careers. But investing is not a 10 question exam that you only take once in life, it's a marathon of critical thinking and research that never ends till your dead or homeless. Sure lots of people claim: you should buy once and hold forever, and some have done that and succeeded but there is a smarter way.  If you understand the companies and industries you invest in and keep up with new opportunities you can plan for both good and bad times. That's a simple sentence but if you break it out its a ton of work.
independently.  Critical thinking is not skilly easily learned or taught. 

Number one thing is to pick something that you like if you like real estate, research real estate. If you start today you have easier than anyone in history.  Information is so easy to get these days. When I started researching real estate you had to have a small fortune to get started at the lowest levels (It took me 10 years to buy my first house), now you can buy a share of a fix and flip loan for $10, or buy a fractional share in a REIT for $10.

I spent months researching p2p lending before I chose to invest in LendingClub, then I only started with a small test investment. Once I started I knew I was picking loans using good credit criteria I stayed away from risky high return loans and favored borrowers with double incomes and a home. My returns have always been higher than average, I don't wonder why because I did the research. i see a ton of videos youtubers trying to explain why LendingClub is a bad investment, but in each case it's obvious they had no idea of how to invest when they started.

I spent more than a year researching real estate crowdfunding (p2p lending), then I did a small test investment. In fact you could call my current investment a test investment, I'm still trying to see if this will be a a small, medium, or large balance in my portfolio going forward.

I can't teach you how to "study, research, look for investments" but I can tell you it's important and I hope my content about the things I have done in the past is helpful. In fact this entire blog and the youtube content are basically examples of, or the results of: studying, researching, looking for investments I have done or thought about doing. Example when I write about Groundfloor or Peerstreet. I still haven't fully decided if they deserve my money, I'm constantly looking for reason to decrease, keep even, or increase my allocation. The things I look for aren't just someone writing an article or blog shitting on crowdfunding or problems in the industries. I do research in everything I can think of: consumer confidence, credit models, and judicial foreclosure states, etc.   

Bottom line you gotta do the work if you want to see the results. You can make money with or without studying investments. But I would rather do the work.

If you liked this article check out the "How to get started" series for more.