learn to invest
I’m Nicola and I’ll teach you how to put your money to work by demystifying investing and giving you the tools, knowledge and mindset to take charge of your finances without the help (and expense) of a financial advisor.
Educators and writers like us often aren’t money-orientated people. We’re here for the love of the job, the travel, the community. I happily flitted around the world, turning a love of language and writing into paid work – low paid work.
It was great. Until it wasn’t.
Until I realised I was never going to own a house and my savings would buy me two – at most three – years of retirement. I wasn’t investing, I had no job security and the future suddenly looked a lot closer than it used to.
Does that sound familiar?
The solution is to start investing and growing savings. You won’t be rich overnight but steadily earning money from money builds passive income and security. Even if you’re doing OK financially, investing is the only way to weather crises and lay down money for the future. And the best part is, once you know the basics, it’s really not hard or scary even if you’re a beginner at investing.
What is the chilled investor course?
A 6-week, 525€ online course for beginner investors covering:
What you need to know about the stock market in order to grow your money over the long term
Why it’s not a good idea to buy individual stocks and what to invest in instead
Why there’s more to investing than the stock market and what else to invest in
How to understand risk and gain the critical psychology of investing that will set you apart from most investors
How to build a strategy that you can stick to and set yourself up for success without a financial advisor
What to look for when choosing investment products so investing doesn’t take up much of your time or brainspace
How the beginner investing course works
6 weeks of self-study video classes from mid Oct-end Nov 2023
2 x live consolidation/Q&A sessions
1 x 60 minute live strategy planning workshop
Downloadable worksheets to make notes as you listen
Downloadable worksheets to review concepts
525€ plus VAT if you’re in the EU
(It’s also possible to pay in 2 instalments!)
If you are burying your head in the sand about your financial future, you need this course, and the sooner you start getting stuff sorted the better. Even if, like me, you do have some pension things set up, you can still really benefit from understanding what you’re doing, and you might just find that you are handing over a fortune in fees completely unnecessarily.
Rachael Roberts, Business coach, Earn Learn Thrive
It’s a brilliant course. Nicola makes complex issues easy to understand and gives you a comprehensive overview of all you need to know before investing … and more background info for anyone interested in diving deeper. I particularly liked the chilled atmosphere. We all felt comfortable asking questions and all of the questions got answered.
Kath Bilsborough, ELT writer & Teacher trainer, Writing ELT Materials
Chilled investors know that mindset is the #1 most crucial thing to successful investing and, by the end of the course, you’ll understand why plus have all the practical knowledge to put it all into action.
Contact me or sign up to my mailing list and to learn more about me or the course or book your place now.
Not ready to take the full course? Try a bite-size money mindset or emergency fund workshop, or check out my free resources.
FAQ
I’m in my 50s and retiring soon. Is the course right for me?
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.
You’re not a financial advisor. How can you teach this?
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.
How much money do I need to have to start investing?
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.
How can I learn something as complicated as investing in 6 weeks?
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.
Will investing take a ton of time and effort?
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.
Is the course only for ELT people?
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.
Does the course cover crypto?
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.
Will you tell us what you’re invested in?
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.