Money is a difficult topic. Many people are quite nervous about the markets, about making new investments, pursuing all sorts of different opportunities, and when is the right time to do so.

Your age should determine how much risk you’re willing to take right now. When you’re in your twenties, you technically have most of your life ahead of you to reap the benefits of your investments and recuperate any losses. So, because of that, you can take on more risk than most.

A lot of people prefer to safely sit on the sidelines – it happens in real estate all the time. We often speak to buyers who say, “I’m looking at plexes, I really want to get into this.” Then one year passes, two years pass, three years pass, and all of a sudden, they’re still looking for that “home run” property and haven’t made a single purchase.

Meanwhile, every other investor who’s been looking for some singles, some doubles, some triples along the way has a portfolio that’s already paying dividends from the work they put in early on.

A lot of the time, we hold off until we find the “perfect” investment, and that keeps us on the sidelines. Ultimately, that halts our potential growth, so we need to make sure that we’re not making decisions from a place of fear: what if we lose it all?

Obviously, we want to make sure we’re doing our due diligence and carefully evaluate whether the investment makes sense. But we also have to make sure that we are weighing the facts and that we’re ready to strike if the situation calls for it.

The most salient point is this: stop making decisions from a place of fear and stop sitting on the sidelines. Analyze the investment properly, and if it makes sense, attack it.

Not sure if you’re on the right track?