Young and Clueless: My First Investing Fails (So You Don’t Have To)

The Thrill (and Terror) of Entering the Investing Game

Okay, so let’s be real. Investing as a young adult? It’s intimidating. You’re juggling ramen budgets, questionable fashion choices, and the constant pressure of figuring out what you’re doing with your life. Throwing money into the stock market feels like adding another layer of uncertainty on top of an already wobbly cake. But, the thing is, I knew I *should* be doing it. Everyone said so. Save early, blah blah blah, compound interest, something something something. Honestly, I was mostly clueless. I mean, weren’t stocks just for, like, rich people and guys in suits on TV?

I remember the exact moment I decided to take the plunge. It was late 2020, everyone was talking about GameStop, and a friend of mine had made some quick cash. He wasn’t some financial guru, just a regular dude. That’s when I thought, “Hey, maybe I can do this too.” What could possibly go wrong? (Famous last words, right?) I downloaded Robinhood, funded it with a measly $100 (felt like a fortune at the time, I’ll tell you what), and started poking around. The app interface was slick and colorful. It felt…game-like, which was both exciting and deeply unsettling in retrospect. Who thought this was a good idea?

My First Mistake: Jumping on the Meme Stock Bandwagon

Alright, confession time. My first “investment” was pure FOMO-fueled idiocy. GameStop was already on its rollercoaster ride, but I figured I could still catch a ride to the moon. I didn’t understand short squeezes, hedge funds, or any of the actual mechanics behind what was happening. I just saw numbers going up and thought, “Money printer go brrr!” Ugh.

I bought a single share of GameStop (thankfully, I didn’t go all in) at what I’m sure was close to the peak. I watched it go up a little, then down a lot. Panic set in. My $100 felt like my entire future crumbling before my eyes. I sold. At a loss, obviously. A small loss, granted, but a loss nonetheless. It stung, not just financially, but also because I felt like such a dummy. Was I the only one confused by this?

I learned a valuable lesson though: don’t invest in things you don’t understand. Easier said than done, I know. But really, chasing hype is a recipe for disaster. And trust me, there’s always another meme stock or hot crypto promising overnight riches. The key is to resist the urge and do your homework. And probably stay off Reddit.

Dipping My Toes into ETFs: A Slightly Less Terrible Idea

After my GameStop fiasco, I decided to try something, you know, a little more…responsible. I’d read online that Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) were a good way to diversify without having to pick individual stocks. Sounds pretty safe, right? Well, safer than betting on a dying video game retailer, anyway. I ended up putting some money into an S&P 500 ETF, mainly because it was the first one I saw.

The nice thing about ETFs is that they’re relatively hands-off. You buy them, and they basically track a market index. It’s kind of like putting your money on autopilot. But this also meant I wasn’t really *learning* anything. I didn’t understand the underlying companies in the index, or the potential risks. My understanding remained superficial. I was still mostly guessing. It did perform slightly better than my GameStop gamble, but it wasn’t exactly setting the world on fire.

If you’re as curious as I was, you might want to dig into different ETF types and their expense ratios before throwing money at the first one that pops up. I wish I had. I think that my initial hesitation to dive deeper into what makes the stock market tick held me back from making smarter investments earlier on.

The Crypto Craze: Riding the Wave (and Wiping Out)

Okay, so this is where things get really embarrassing. After my cautious foray into ETFs, the crypto craze hit. Bitcoin was skyrocketing, Dogecoin was a joke turned multi-billion dollar asset, and everyone I knew was suddenly a cryptocurrency expert. Again, FOMO. This time, though, it was worse. I told myself I was being “innovative” and “embracing the future of finance.” What I was really doing was gambling with money I couldn’t afford to lose. I stayed up until 2 a.m. reading about Bitcoin on Coinbase.

I bought a little Bitcoin, a little Ethereum, and, yes, even a little Dogecoin. I even tried my hand at “staking” (still not entirely sure what that is, to be honest). For a while, it felt amazing. My portfolio was going up, up, up! I was a genius! Until, of course, it wasn’t. The crypto market crashed. Hard. All those gains I thought I had? Gone. Poof. Vanished into thin air. Ugh, what a mess!

The worst part wasn’t even the money I lost (although that definitely sucked). It was the realization that I had let myself get swept up in the hype again. I hadn’t done my due diligence. I hadn’t understood the risks. And I had paid the price. I totally messed up by not having a plan in place for if the prices plummeted. Was I just supposed to hodl? Should I have cut my losses sooner? I still don’t have a good answer.

Lessons Learned (the Hard Way)

So, what did I learn from my early investing misadventures? First, don’t chase hype. Seriously. Second, understand what you’re investing in. Third, don’t invest money you can’t afford to lose. These seem like obvious lessons, I know. But sometimes, you have to learn things the hard way.

I still invest, but I’m much more cautious now. I spend more time researching companies, reading financial news (boring, but necessary), and, most importantly, understanding my own risk tolerance. And I definitely stay away from meme stocks and questionable cryptocurrencies. Mostly. I mean, who even knows what’s next? But hopefully, I’m a little bit wiser now. And maybe, just maybe, you can learn from my mistakes and avoid some of your own. Good luck out there. You’ll need it.