Investing With a Busy Schedule
Our lives are busier than ever, it seems. Career, family, social responsibilities, travel, and education all chip away at our time. We can think about our financial future, but how do we find the time to learn about sound investing and building a diversified portfolio?
Great news! We’re going to take a look at some tips for investing on a busy schedule and learn how to choose wise, easy investments.
A Little Background on Passive Investing
Passive investing is a solid way to build wealth. Remember the story of the tortoise and the hare? Slow and steady wins the race? That is passive investing. Let’s take a look.
The amount of investment information that exists on the internet is staggering, and most people just don’t have time for that research. The need is for investing made simple. Investors want stress-free, easy investments that perform well and provide reliable, easy passive income.
Passive investing ticks all those boxes. According to Investopedia, “Passive investment is cheaper, less complex, and often produces superior after-tax results over medium to long time horizons than actively managed portfolios.
What is passive investing?
Passive investing is a specific strategy to build wealth gradually. Investors buy and hold investments instead of buying and selling quickly.
The difference between active vs passive investing is this: “In active investing, you research individual companies and buy and sell stocks in an attempt to best the stock market. In passive investing, you buy a basket of assets and try to mirror what the stock market is doing.”
In 2021, a Gallup Investor Optimism Index found that 71% of investors felt that passive investing was the right strategy for seeing the best returns long-term and an astonishing 89% believe that the time in the market was better than trying to time and beat the market.
There are several benefits to passive investing. This type of portfolio is pretty low maintenance and doesn’t require constant check-ins or managing. Investors can sit back and earn easy income.
In the long term, passive investing tends to outperform active investing, and because you’re investing in a broad variety of asset classes and industries, the risk is lower. Passive investing doesn’t come with the types of fees that active investing does because you’re not constantly buying and selling. Active selling that sees a profit is subject to capital gains taxes but holding onto assets for the long term in passive investing results in paying lower taxes.
Types of Passive Investments
There are many different categories of investments you can make that can serve as passive investments.
Regardless of which you choose to use, the strength of the passive portfolio is diversification - investors buy baskets of assets. Let’s discuss the types of passive investments.
- Mutual Funds - When you buy mutual funds, you are investing in a company that buys assets on your behalf. These professionals perform the due diligence for you and buy and sell stocks, bonds, and other assets for you.
- Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) - ETFs are a bit like mutual funds, except ETFs are traded on an exchange, similar to a stock. These funds follow a stock collection or index such as the S&P 500 or the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
- Index Funds - These can be either a mutual fund or an ETF and the investment tracks the performance of an index. Money that is put into an index fund is then invested in all the companies that make up that particular index.
- Passive Real Estate Investments - In passive real estate investing, the investor isn’t directly involved as a landlord or property owner. Instead, the money is invested in the real estate deal, but the investor is not involved in the operation or management of the property.
Passive Real Estate Investing
The last bullet sounded interesting, didn’t it? Let’s dive in deeper to what we’re talking about.
Passive Real Estate (RE) investing is a relatively low-risk way to gradually build wealth without the responsibility of being actively involved in operations or management.
Passive vs. Active Real Estate Investing
There are marked differences between active vs passive investing. An active investment requires an investor to be on deck and actively managing. In real estate investing, that means the investor is the landlord or property owner actively involved in the day-to-day operations.
Passive real estate investing is very much hands-off. As an investor, you’ll have no physical interaction with the property, and your easy passive income comes from the developer. That’s right, you don’t deal directly with tenants either. This type of investing often comes with low, easy investments that are within reach for the average person.
Benefits of Passive Real Estate Investing
Obviously, the goal of any investment strategy is to see a good return on your investment and to build wealth. Real estate investing provides the opportunity to earn easy passive income, along with other benefits. These include:
- Lower initial investment options: While you can be an accredited investor, RE investing has opportunities for the unaccredited investor. Initial investment options can be as low as $500, as with Connect Invest.
- No physical labor expectations: You won’t be expected to physically manage the property or be involved with the daily operations. Someone else is responsible for maintenance, vetting tenants, collecting rent, and marketing the property.
- Your investment is tied to the developer and not the bank: Bank loans are mired in documentation and are time-consuming. In RE investing, your money is tied to a professional real estate company that has established relationships with banks.
- You can tap into a wealth of professional experience: Real estate investment companies employ experienced and knowledgeable people who leverage that experience and work behind the scenes for you.
- Decreased liability: When you invest in RE, you are only responsible for knowing how to add the capital to your RE investing account, understanding the calendar for property updates, and when you can expect payouts. The investment companies take care of everything else.
- Make money while you sleep: When you open an account online with a real estate investment company and your initial investment is processed, you become an equity stakeholder and begin to earn passive income.
Why Should You Choose Passive Real Estate Investing?
Would you say no to making money while you sleep? Along with this potential, there are plenty of advantages that come with investing passively in real estate, including:
- RE is a Physical & Appreciating Asset
Real estate has been considered a good and relatively safe investment for a long time. It is consistent in providing income from both rent and long-term appreciation. Land is a finite resource and necessary - humans need shelter and buildings in which to work, shop, and recreate. There will always be demand for this physical asset.
- Less Volatile than Stocks
Generally speaking, the real estate market is less volatile than the stock market. It does experience fluctuations but as an asset class, it is quite slow-growing and stable.
Investment opportunities at Connect Invest
You may be wondering where or how to get started. Connect Invest makes it easy for you.
Connect Invest offers short note investment opportunities for a minimum investment of just $500. These short notes fund a diversified portfolio of private, commercial, and residential real estate projects.
Connect Invest Short Notes contribute to funding a diversified portfolio of real estate projects. The collateral-backed loans within the portfolio are first position or primary. You invest with zero overhead, liquidity, and no account fees.
Want to get started? Here’s how the process looks:
- Create an account. It just takes minutes.
- Fund your Connect Invest wallet
- Select from 6, 12, and 24-month term investments
- Earn monthly passive income!
It really is as straightforward as that. But, if you have any questions, our team would be happy to assist you at any time. Get in touch with us today!