If you're new to investing, there is a good chance that you might be feeling left out.
After all, while you have been on the sidelines, we've had one of the longest bull markets ever and Australia hasn't had a recession in a quarter of a century.
With interest rates still at record lows, asset prices across the board don't look cheap when measured against traditional metrics. Property prices remain sky high and share prices in some of the top performing companies on the ASX have experienced tremendous growth over the last five years. For example:
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A2 Milk Company Ltd (ASX: A2M) shares are up over 1,700% since April 2015
- Altium Limited (ASX: ALU) shares are up 989% since 2013
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Afterpay Touch Group Ltd (ASX: APT) shares are up over 500% since June 2017
That's just companies that start with 'A', I didn't even need to go further down the alphabet.
It might all sound disheartening for new investors with a fear of missing out but, there is good news. In my opinion, the best time to start investing is now. Here is why I think so:
Investing is a lifetime endeavour. It's not possible, even for the 'experts', to perfectly time the peaks and troughs of the market. Personally, it's not even a goal for me. I just try to buy good businesses over time and add to them when opportunities present themselves (as they inevitably always do).
The world keeps moving forward. Today, there are many companies that are achieving breakthroughs in high growth trends such as Artificial Intelligence, the Internet of Things, the rise of emerging markets such as China, biotechnology and genomics. These companies are set to become tomorrow's market leaders and you can invest in their future today.
Investing doesn't have to be about binary decisions. You don't have to be fully invested or not invested at all, you can have half your funds invested and half standing by in cash. You don't have to be an index only or an individual shares only investor. You can do both. You don't have to choose between buying shares in Xero Limited (ASX: XRO) or CSL Limited (ASX: CSL). If you think they could outperform the market, buy both.
There are a lot of opportunities in the market and if you need some ideas on where to start, you might want to read about these 3 disruptors.
