Is Investing and Trading Inaccessible?
We all wish deep down that we could get an unlimited supply of our favourite products and services rather than paying for them. I’ve always thought about investing in shares of some of my most consumed products and services but I’ve never been able to find an affordable entry point. I did research and joined a few services but there would always be a minimum spend of several hundred pounds which I didn’t have; in order to invest I’d have to purchase using minimum orders that were more truckload than affordable which always seemed too risky.
I always hoped for something to come along which allowed me to invest incrementally with minimal risk; allowing me to purchase one or a few hundred if I ever wanted, for as low or as high as I wanted in some failing high street retailer or a global behemoth. I wanted to buy shares on my own terms via an iOS app that I could easily understand, without jargon, having the most simple, animated and straight forward interface.
Trial and Error
My research into the perfect platform though other well known providers was disasterous. They weren’t bulit for the casual millenial investor, they were built for those already in the know; boring interfaces, no brand logos, crazy minimum order requirements. They all looked as though they were trying to emulate some form of ‘trader’ software that the people at the stock exchange use with fifty million screens for all the separate views. They all over complicated their apps, the way you invest and in turn alienated the casual investmentment market that wanted to jump in with the £25 they had saved on lunch by bringing in their own lunch and invested in M&S shares. They missed the boat completely.
If I’m going to get serious about investment in shares on an incremental level, everything has to be simple and straight forward.
A friend of mine, MK, had mentioned Freetrade sometime last year but my mind weren’t really into doing research into yet another Fintech app that required deposits, commitment, trial and error… but I signed up anyway, was placed into a queue of around 40k people and somehow managed to get pushed to the front after a week or so and began using the app.
Simple and Straight Forward
It’s so straight forward and simple to use; bank transfer to deposit and start making orders when you find a company you’d like to buy shares in from a list that they keep updating. There’s no fees unless you want to execute straight away as opposed to waiting until the end of the day, you can also invest how ever little as you want which is good for me. UI-wise you’re looking at a much more streamlined version of something like Monzo or Starling. A graph of your investment portfolio greets you after login, displaying the value of your portfolio whilst there’s an option to view the shares you’ve purchased with either a red or yellow percentage telling you if your share values have increased or decreased.
I’m not trying to be that trader guy, I’m just trying to own shares in some of my most used brands.
My portfolio is comprised of retailers, insurance, banks, minerals, oil and gas. Strategy-wise I’m more pragmatist in a paddling pool of options rather than swimming in a get rich quick shark tank of aggressive buying and selling. I think that’s the great thing about Freetrade, it really feels like its easy going -geared towards those who always wanted to invest in their favourite companies but thought it was inaccessible. Freetrade allows you can dictate the pace.
To find out more click here.
Consume or Invest
Still unsure about the value of investing in some of your most consumed products and services? Below is the lament that inspired this post, also echos the point made in some of those memes which do the internet rounds comparing the cost of a pair of kicks to purchasing shares and earning dividends.
A Lament About Lazy Marketing
The cost of a pair of Nike Retro Jordan 3’s cost upwards of £169, come in limited quantities, and at times require you to do lots of free marketing for the lazy retailer who knows that they’re operating within a dying sales sector, wanting to spend less money [that they don’t have] on marketing so create a cheap way to get engagement on social media -to appear more relevant.
These stores get you to enter a pointless raffle where you post their picture, annoyingly tag all your mates who then think its the ticket to copping a pair of these ‘excluuusive’ kicks which tend to be forgotten about a few days after the hype dies down post release. You may not even win and just look like one of those mugs who got sucked in. What if you made a choice not to pay £169 for a pair of kicks that will depreciate in value after wearing [obvs] and will eventually need to be thrown away after jumping through all those hoops just to make a purchase and decided that you would invest in the company stock instead?
Perhaps you’d reap the rewards of new brand partnership announcements through increased dividend payments and get more pleasure in seeing your portfolio increase in value. It’s just a suggestion -well one that I made a few months ago so have been thinking twice about buying new kicks, until I purchase shares in Adidas [not currently on Freetrade] anyway.
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