269. How To Start Investing in 2026 (Personal Finance Cheat Sheet Pt. 3)

0:00If you've been meaning to invest, no more excuses. This is your year.

0:17Investing isn't for rich people. It's how people become rich. And on today's episode, the final episode of the Personal Finance Cheat Sheet Series, I am walking you through exactly step-by-step how to make your first investment. If you're someone who is just starting investing or maybe hasn't started at all, this is not going to be jargony. This is not going to be overwhelming. I know that that's probably why you haven't gotten started or why you bail every time you log into your Fidelity, Vanguard, Schwab, Robinhood account. It's because everything's so crazy and confusing. This is what we're debunking today.

0:52It's so important that this information is accessible. So if you know somebody in your life who is also trying to figure out how to invest or has been putting it off, share this episode with them too. And if you're joining us here at part three and you haven't watched part one and two, please go watch or listen to episodes one and two of the personal finance cheat sheet series. We are getting started in 2026, giving you everything you need to know to start building wealth this year.

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2:34And before we get into the rest of the episode, we are doing a free investing workshop called Stock Market Secrets. I have taught this workshop to over 200 ,000 people who are trying to figure out how to start investing, how to overcome the myths you've been believing, and some of the most common mistakes I see on people's investing journeys so you don't make them too. Go to herfirst100k.com slash ffpod to register. It is entirely free, so I expect your butt to be there. herfirst100k.com slash ffpod. Sign up for Stock Market Secrets. We'll see you very soon in that free workshop. First, we have to talk about what investing is and what it isn't.

3:12And investing simply defined is using money to make more money. It is putting money in the stock market and allowing it to grow using what's called compound interest. Now, compound interest simply defined is when your interest earns interest earns interest. That's what makes investing so powerful because you're no longer the only person who's working hard to make money. Your money is now making you money. Compound interest is one of the things that is so incredible if used correctly and awful if it's used against you, right? A lot of people get into debt and then compound interest is the reason that debt accumulates.

3:50However, rather than having this harm you, it's actually now used for your benefit to grow your wealth. A lot of people hear the word invest or investing in the stock market and they think about short-term gains, quite literally, right? People think about like chasing the hot stock or day trading. It's this very short-term focus. And it makes all of us believe that investing is gambling, that it's risky and that it's no different than going to the casino or going and playing the lottery. And in actuality, it's very, very different. If you're someone who's been believing that investing means doing all of that, all of the short-term day trading, spend eight hours a day trying to figure out how to do this, that's such a myth.

4:42That is a specific group of people who is usually trying to scam you and is trying to convince you of this get-rich-quick-overnight kind of situation. but investing is meant to be done over the long term. And I'm not just talking like months, I'm talking years, if not decades. I wish I could come on this video in this episode and tell you I could make you rich tomorrow, but I would be lying to you and or trying to sell you something. And that's just not how this works. When you see people who are successful day traders, and I'm putting like success in the biggest air quotes here, they're not telling you the high amount of risk they're taking on.

5:25So when it comes to investing, investing is actually one of the best things you can do to grow your money, but you have to focus on the long term. Because the truth is, if you're scared of losing money in the stock market, you have to give yourself as much time as possible. One of the stats I found when I was researching my first book, Financial Feminist, is that over every 20-year period of the stock market so far, every 20-year period, even one that included 2008, even one that included the beginning of COVID, or even the Great Depression, you have been 100 % likely to make money. That means if you're scared of losing money, the answer is to be patient.

6:03The answer is to use the stock market as it was intended, which is a long-term strategy to build wealth. So if you're someone that thinks it's too risky to actually invest, you're believing the lie that the short-term gains are how you invest. In actuality, that is the easiest way to lose money. If you're someone who's thinking, oh, it's too late for me to get started. No, compound interest works regardless of your age. It works regardless of your age and regardless of the amount of money. So whether you are 18 or 88, whether you have$10 or$100 ,000, investing works. Compound interest works. And finally, to everybody who says it's too confusing, well, that's literally why I have a job.

6:45and it's also why everybody else has theirs because the truth is the finance industry is a multi multi multi multi billion dollar industry built on making you feel like you're too stupid to understand because if they make everything super jargony and like it's in another language and there's so many graphs and there's charts and there's words you've never seen before and you're just like how do I buy a stock and what even is a stock and where do I go to do that they've done that on purpose. Because then you call one of their wealth management advisors, and in no time at all, you are paying an exorbitant amount of money in fees for them to do what you can do by yourself.

7:25That's not an accident. That's why this industry exists. And it's also why I'm here, because nothing drives me more insane than people making money off of patronizing you. So before we talk more about how to actually invest, I have to convince you why this year is your year, okay? Why you should start investing in 2026. The first thing you need to know is that time in the market is better than trying to time the market. I hear this from our audience all the time as they'll go, I have a little bit of money and I'm ready to invest, but I know now's not a good time. And then they give me whatever thing they've heard on the news, right?

8:02Oh, Trump's making crazy decisions, or the economy's bad, or the job market's down, or we're about to have a war, and that's going to be... All of these things are real and might have a sway in the stock market. They might influence the market performance. However, as I proved to you before, the day-to-day in the stock market doesn't really matter. We're in this years, if not decades. And it has been proven time and time again that if you just get in the stock market, regardless of what it's doing on that day or that week or that month, you are more likely to make money than you trying to time the market.

8:41And anybody, by the way, who tells you you can, who's like, well, I have a finance degree and I work at Charles Schwab or JP Morgan and I know how to do this. They're also lying to you because no one can time the stock market. Nobody. There are people who might have a inkling or might have a suspicion of what's going to happen, but they have been wrong as many times, if not more, as they've been right. The second reason you need to start investing in 2026 is because there's a lot of stuff going on. It's the very reason you're nervous to invest, right? Inflation, the job market, the economy, all of these things feel very high stakes.

9:22And of course they do. They're affecting our day-to-day lives. Layoffs and the price of eggs are things that we have to think about as individuals and as a collective all the fucking time. But this actually is one of the biggest reasons why I need you growing your wealth. Because the stock market over the last nearly 125 years it's been around has brought in consistent gains. Now, some years it's low. Some years it's actually in the negative. Other years, like since the beginning of COVID, we've seen an average of like 15, 20, 25 % interest in the stock market. So the average you can expect over a long period of time is anywhere from 7 % to 10 % in interest.

10:07That is incredibly powerful. And you can't get that percentage return anywhere else, not for a massive level of risk, right? So when we're thinking about growing our money in the midst of all the chaos that's happening, this is actually one of the best ways that we can ensure that our money is working harder for us, that we're not losing money due to inflation, that we're not feeling financially behind. So if you've been waiting on the sidelines because now's not a good time and everything seems chaotic, now's the best time. We have to get you in to using compound interest as your kind of like silent worker, right?

10:46It is earning you money literally when you sleep. I remember when I started investing at 22 and then hit my 100K at 25 and then hit multi-millionaire status by 27, right? All of these things happened. One, because of entrepreneurship, I had a successful business. But two, I used those entrepreneurship gains, put them in the stock market, and then allowed my money to work harder for me. And I still remember, invested in my Roth IRA, we'll explain what that is in a second. When I was 22 and I woke up and I checked my stock market app and I realized that while I was asleep, my money had made me more money.

11:28That's incredible. That's the feeling I want for you. And especially if you're feeling broke, you're feeling tired, you're feeling overwhelmed. You're like, I don't have thousands and thousands of dollars to invest, Tori, why would I invest now? Because that's your best tool. That is your best tool for building new economic stability and building your wealth. And as a reminder, before we get into the roadmap, the beginner's roadmap for investing, we have that Stock Market Secrets Workshop that is so incredibly helpful to give you more information about how to invest, especially if you're feeling intimidated, especially if you're feeling overwhelmed, especially if there's that fear that's holding you back from actually getting started or investing consistently.

12:09And again, it's entirely free. It's with me. I would love to see you there. So go to herfirst100k.com slash FFpod, and we'll have the link to Stock Market Secrets, our free investing workshop right there. So herfirst100k.com slash FFpod.

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14:08All right, let's talk about the step-by-step ways we can start investing. Now, I have so much more in that free workshop, right? This takes a little while to explain. I can't explain it to you all in this episode, but I'm going to give you the TLDR of how to do this. Okay. So the first step is to pick an investing account. Now you have a couple different options. You can choose what's called a retirement account. This is an investing account for retirement. You've probably heard of something like an 401k or an IRA. We have more episodes that break these down, but a 401k is a tax-advantaged retirement account that is set up by your employer.

14:46The reason I say tax-advantaged is because 401ks, IRAs, any sort of retirement account is tax-advantaged, meaning that the government is incentivizing you to save for retirement by offering you tax breaks, like legal tax breaks. An IRA is an individual retirement account. And you can open up an IRA regardless if your employer has a 401k or not. This is a great way for you to use those tax advantages at your disposal. If you just want to start investing and You don't want to worry about, you know, do I qualify for these accounts? What is the maximum for these accounts? You want to open what's called a brokerage account.

15:23A brokerage account is just a general investing account. Now, it doesn't have the tax advantages, which is the con, but it doesn't have any of the restrictions either. You don't have to worry about like hitting a maximum or qualifying or even having that account available. However, if I was getting started, this is what I did at 22. to, I'd open up a Roth IRA because Roth IRAs are the best way for me to save money on taxes, contribute to my retirement, and I can start investing at a micro level. So after you've chosen your account, step number two is to choose the investments that go in that type of account.

16:01Now, this might already be blowing your mind because this right here is the number one mistake I see new investors make. So if you've been tuning me out, if you're watching on YouTube and you like, I don't know, have me on mute, you're going to crank me up. Crank up that soldier boy, okay? Because you need to know this. This right here is a mistake that I see that costs millions and millions of dollars. And I get DMs about it all the time. People think the Roth IRA or the 401k or the brokerage account is the investment. It's not. It is the account that holds the investments, okay? So when you pick the account, the 401k, IRA, brokerage account, whatever, you put, let's say,$1 ,000 into that account.

16:43You then need to go buy things with the$1 ,000. You need to go buy stocks or funds, and then you've actually invested. Now, we have so much more information about stocks, funds, all of that over in Stock Market Secrets. But the thing you need to keep in mind is that you cannot just open one of these accounts without doing step two. Step two is choosing the investments to go into that account. Okay? So step number one, understand your accounts and pick one. Step number two is build a simple portfolio. Okay? I personally love index funds. Index funds are groups of stocks. So rather than trying to cherry pick or find the hot stock, I am picking an index fund, which is a group of stocks that has thousands of companies.

17:30And this helps mitigate my risk. The third thing you're going to do is you're going to automate contributions to your investing account. We've talked about automating your savings all the time, right? Setting up an automatic transfer from your checking account to your high yield savings account. This is the same principle, but from your checking account or your savings account into the account that you've chosen for your investments, your Roth IRA, for example. Automating contributions means that you're allowing your money to grow on autopilot. You're not having to think about it. You're not having to worry about it.

18:01Maybe this is every time you get paid. Maybe this is once a month. You can decide what that looks like for you. But I highly recommend automating your contribution so you don't have to think about it. If you are investing in a 401k through work, most workplaces make this super easy. You end up contributing a percentage of your income or of your paycheck to your 401k. And if you're already doing that, I would encourage you to increase it a percentage. May as well see what that looks like. You're probably not going to feel it. Step number four, stop looking. I know you're like, Tori, but you tell me to look at my money and you tell me to un-ostridge myself and you've done nearly 300 episodes about how important it is to look at my money.

18:38Here's the deal. Once you have systems set up, once you have the account chosen and the investments chosen for the account and you've automated this whole process, great. You don't have to worry about it anymore. That's the goal, right? My goal is to get you to a point where you don't have to feel like you have to look at your money every other second because you know that your goals are happening. You know that you're contributing and progressing towards building wealth, right? And so if you've automated your contributions, I want you to leave it the hell alone. Don't feel like, oh, the news, something happened and I have to go in and sell all my stocks, right?

19:18That's what causes recessions, by the way. Don't panic and make some sort of rash decision. And also don't see somebody on TikTok talking about this hot new stock or this hot new company that you must invest in and go in and change everything, right? If you have made educated investing choices, and if you follow me, and if you come to the Stock Market Secrets Workshop, you will have made those educated investment choices, you don't have to worry. It's on autopilot. It's happening without you having to think about it. Step number five is then to review it every once in a while. Once in a while, I mean like every quarter, okay?

19:55I'm not like talking every day or every week. I'm just talking like once every couple months. Check in, make sure everything's good. Make sure your automated contributions are going to the things you want them to go to, right? And all of these things, once you set up the system, start to get so much easier. Now, in terms of setting up your account, we've talked about this before, but you have a couple options. You can do this yourself through a brokerage like a Fidelity or a Vanguard. You can work with a robo-advisor, which means that they're choosing your investments for you for a small fee. That's like a betterment or a wealth front.

20:29And we actually built our own investing app over in our stock market school that teaches you how to do this step-by-step alongside education with me. But make sure to go register for that free Stock Market Secrets workshop first. It's going to give you a bunch of great info with me. Ultimately, we want to focus on clarity and simplicity here. Again, this is a multi-multi billion-dollar industry built on making you feel like you're too stupid to understand, but also convincing you that this is so complicated, that building wealth and becoming a millionaire and securing your retirement is about chasing a fancy stock and joining a hedge fund and like making crazy decisions.

21:06It's not. And I'm here to tell you, both as someone who is a expert in this, who has done the research, who wrote a New York Times bestselling book, but also who built wealth, built multi-millions of dollars of wealth this way, that it's actually not complicated at all. The index funds that I talk about are the exact funds I invest in because ultimately simplicity and clarity and consistency are what are actually going to allow you to invest and build wealth in 2026 and beyond. Not getting caught up in what the hot new thing is and not getting caught up in trends and not getting caught up in feeling like, oh, this has to be complicated in order to work.

21:48It doesn't.

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23:31We've talked about some of these mistakes, these like chasing hot stocks, pulling out when the stock market feels scary, which is one that I see all of the time. But the biggest mistake I see with women specifically, and 98 % of the people watching or listening to this are women, so hello, I hope you stick around and subscribe, is that you feel like research is a good thing. You feel like, I got to do more research in order to figure out what I'm doing. I have to go Google all of these things and spend hours and hours and hours researching. Now, I'm not saying research. True research is a bad thing.