How To Invest | Stephen Ajulu · Entreprenuer, Writer, Designer & Creator

Hey there? Today I’ll show you how to get started investing.

Disclaimer: I am not a financial expert, down below is purely my opinion.

1. Money Market Funds ^{Low Risk}

A money market fund mainly invests in short-term debt securities with high credit quality such as treasury bills and commercial paper. This fund is ideal for the conservative low-risk investor who leans towards stability and security for capital invested. Interest is calculated on a daily basis, and credited to the client’s account net of costs.

For example Cytonn’s money market fund can go up to 11% depending with the market.

Currently there are more than 8 Money Market Funds in Kenya.

Here are the ones I know about.

1. Cytonn Money Market Fund
2. Icea Lion DigiTrust
3. Britam Money Market Fund
4. CIC Group Money Market Fund
5. GenCapHela Imara Money Market Fund
6. UAPOld Mutual Money Market Fund

2. Real Estate & Land ^{Moderate Risk}

Real Estate & Land is mainly the buying, selling or renting of real estate or land. Land and Real Estate are assets known to appreciate in value and one of the contributing factors to this, is that the world is running out of land and land prices keep increasing because of it’s demand. Real Estate on the other hand is important as well. Investing in this usually means you are buying a piece of land or housing then wait for it to appreciate in value and then sell or rent it. Many have devised a ploy where they rent land then rent it to other people and they deduct their profits while paying the rest to the official landlord.

Real Estate is a moderate risk high return investment, which means before attempting to invest in this. Lay aside an emergency fund as prices depreciate too. Take a look at this season we are in, it’s prime season for those looking for housing or land but not so good to the sellers.

I know of only 3 way of investing in land and that is through

1. Safaricom Investment Cooperative
2. Cytonn Real Estate
3. Stanlib Fahari – Stanlib Fahari I-REIT is Kenya’s first Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) providing investors with a steady income stream and capital growth. The fund invests at least 75% of its Total Asset Value (TAV) in real estate in strategic locations in Kenya. A maximum of 25% of its TAV is invested in cash investments and cash-like instruments.

3. Shares ^{Moderate Risk}

I talk about this here: How To Buy Your First Share

4. ETFs(Exchange Traded Fund) ^{Moderate Risk}

An exchange traded fund (ETF) is a type of security that involves a collection of securities—such as stocks—that often tracks an underlying index, although they can invest in any number of industry sectors or use various strategies. ETFs are in many ways similar to mutual funds; however, they are listed on exchanges and ETF shares trade throughout the day just like ordinary stock.

The only ETF I know is

1. Absa NewGold ETF – The Barclays/Absa NewGold ETF is an instrument that tracks the price of gold in line with the international markets. It is listed on the Nairobi Securities Exchange and trades under the symbol GLD. Any local investor can purchase it through placing an order through their stockbroker.

   If an investor buys the security/share of the NewGold ETF he is effectively buying approximately 1/100th of an ounce of Gold which is held in a secure depository on behalf of investors and is backed by physical gold.

5. Cryptocurrencies ^{High Risk}

A cryptocurrency (or “crypto”) is a digital currency that can be used to buy goods and services, but uses an online ledger with strong cryptography to secure online transactions. Much of the interest in these unregulated currencies is to trade for profit, with speculators at times driving prices skyward.

Just recently they crypto market(all cryptocurrencies) surpassed 1.2 Trillion US Dollars, that’s 131,340,000,000,000.00 Kenyan Shillings. One Bitcoin, the most popular cryptocurrency is at 5,103,850.51 Kenyan Shilling. So you can see the potential cryptocurrencies have. They are a great investment. But you have to be careful as this is a high risk investment, i mean very high risk. Bitcoin and the likes aren’t regulated, if for example hypothetically bitcoin was to disappear from the internet, so would you money. It’s a high risk high return investment.

Here is a list of some cryptocurrencies

1. Bitcoin at 5,103,850.51 Kenyan Shillings
2. Ethereum at 196,334.71 Kenyan Shillings
3. Litecoin at 20,720.36 Kenyan Shillings
4. Bitcoin Cash at 56,694.36 Kenyan Shillings
5. Monero at 16,504.40 Kenyan Shillings

6. Forex ^{High Risk}

Basically investing/trading in other currencies eg USD.

One way to do this is to register with FXPesa

That’s it for today I know I haven’t covered all of them so I’ll save the rest for another day.

Go check out my other post on how I started investing
.

Have a great day everyone.

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