There’s no denying that time is the key factor in investing and you need at least 10 years, and preferably longer, in the stock market to ride out downturns, like crises or recessions. The course will help you understand how to approach the stock market at different life stages.

Also, the chilled investor course covers other kinds of investments that see faster returns, more akin to passive income. Once you understand all your options (and the course will mean you will), maybe you’ll choose to focus less on stocks and more on other types of investments.

If you’re retiring soon, this is one place where a financial planner or advisor could be useful. Knowledge of investing means you can approach them with the right questions and understand what they’re advising you and not end up in products with high fees that aren’t right for you.

One thing is certain, whatever your age: not investing at all is a huge lost opportunity to make money.

There have always been gatekeepers to knowledge about finance and advisors would have you believe the only way to invest is via a gatekeeper.

I began knowing nothing about the stock market or alternative forms of investing but, once I began learning, I was able to start earning money and continue doing so. My years of teaching and writing educational materials are what qualify me to teach what I’ve learned.

The one thing I won’t do is tell you exactly what to invest in because that would be giving financial advice.

It depends what you’re investing in. On a lot of investment platforms you can start with as little as 10€, on others, the minimum is higher. It’s still worth investing even before you really have savings because you’re learning something that will reap rewards for your entire lifetime. You’ll start wanting to budget for the month factoring in money to grow your investments month on month, year on year.

Even if you don’t have savings to invest now, learning the habits and psychology of investing will encourage you to save money. I have my 7-year-old investing money he has from the tooth fairy for exactly that reason! Of course, the more money you put in the more you stand to earn but it’s a myth that you need to have a lot to start investing.

The important thing, by far, is just to start.

It’s not actually that complicated! I started investigating this whole new world of finance in the summer and by autumn I was earning money from it. Investing is a lifetime project but it doesn’t take long to learn the practical elements.

There are so many gatekeepers to finance that it seems like you need a degree in Finance to do it, or to pay someone a lot of money to do it for you. Neither of those things is true but there are plenty of people who benefit from you thinking otherwise.

No! The course will take you a couple of hours a week for 6 weeks. After that, none of the various accounts take long to set up.

Researching which platforms to use from your country, though many are international, will take less time than the research you’d do to plan a holiday if you do the chilled investor course and know what you’re looking for.

Once set up, I spend minutes a week on my investments, and you could leave it for weeks without looking at any of it once you’re up and running.

No! It’s for anyone new to investing, or newish eg has a pension but hasn’t independently invested much beyond that. Or people who, like me, had messed about with some shares but didn’t really know what they were doing. ELT, educators, writers and editors have the same background as me and, I think, the same sort of attitudes and beliefs around money but there’s nothing that would exclude anyone from other professions.

Nope! And not NFTs either. I only invest in things I understand (which is essential advice for anyone). Both those things are too new and too volatile to be anything other than gambling at this point. Maybe in years to come, they’ll be everyday things like currency, real estate and art. Until then, they’re not something that fit my investing strategy or the concept of chilled investing.

Sure! I’ll talk about the pros and cons of things I’ve done. And I’ll tell you what I do and don’t like about the various platforms I use but any decisions about whether to use them yourself are up to you. I’ll also share my mistakes so you can avoid them.