( ENSPIRE Community Spotlight ) Financial Planner Helping Her Clients Build Generational Wealth, Learn Comprehensive Financial Planning and Personal Finance, and More
ENSPIRE Contributor: Alexandra Rivera
Reshell Smith is a Certified Financial Planner, speaker, and author. She is the President of AMES Financial Solutions, a virtual financial planning firm. Reshell Smith is offering a course on stock and investing, besides her free course on YouTube, where she gives tips on smart investing during a recession. Investing can be daunting, but it does not have to be if you are open to learning.
She offers an investing course called “Ready, Stock, Go!” that teaches beginners how to invest in stocks. It offers tips for building a portfolio and gives essential factors to consider before purchasing stocks. Students will learn the differences between stocks, from Growth and Value to Large and Small Cap plus more. Students will finish the course with a quiz on what they learned to see if they are ready to invest. The course fee is $21.
Smith gives five tips on smart investing:
- Keep your emotions out of it. Make transactions and investments as emotion-free as possible as your emotions can have you make costly decisions.
- Be a contrarian investor. This means that when you see everyone hopping out of the market out of fear, it might be time to invest more as prices may be lower or discounted.
- Improve your financial position by looking at things other than your portfolio. It may be hard to not look at something like a 401(k) or brokerage account where you have a lot of money invested, but working on things such as your budget, or other assets, or reducing debt allows you to feel less stressed about your portfolio and for it to do what it needs to do as the market changes.
- If you are looking to invest during uncertain times, stick to companies that you know are well-managed, such as larger companies, and who provide products that will always be essential to the population, such as food and utilities.
- Enlist professional help. If you feel as though you’ve gotten in over your head, remember that there are many financial planners and advisors you can reach out to who are more than happy to help.
What made you interested in teaching students about investing?
Initially, I started with my young son 16 years old now. He has always heard conversations in our home about money, investing, retirement, and financial planning. One day when he was about 7 years old, I let him sit at our kitchen table and together we placed a trade. Side note, you must be 18 to open an account. I took a picture of him at the table in front of the computer with the caption “placing a trade” and I posted it on Facebook. Everyone loved it! So much so, that parents started asking me if I could help their kids. It wasn’t in my plans, but it made perfect sense. If my 7-year-old son could grasp the concept of investing in the Stock Market, so could other kids. From that point, I decided I needed to add an in-person class that focused on students. We create vision boards, discuss goals and learn the basics of investing.
Do you find that people start investing too late in life and what age do you think is ideal to start?
I don’t think it’s ever too late to start. However, It may be too late to meet a specific goal. For example, if you are 55 with no money invested and want to retire at age 65 with $1,000,000, you are starting very late. My motto is “start investing as young as you can and as often as you can.” Your time in the market can be more impactful than timing the market. By law, you have to be 18 to open an account, however, a guardian can set up an account for a child as soon as they are born and have the required documentation. And that’s exactly the time I suggest you consider starting.
For people who are unsure about investing and are interested in starting where do you recommend they begin?
If you are unsure, I recommend you start with a firm that allows access to a broker or a program that will help you get started. Consider companies like Charles Schwab, Fidelity, E-Trade. These companies should have an actual person who you can communicate with. Another option is to use a Robo-advisor that makes trades on your behalf. Think of a Robo-adviser as a digital financial adviser. Consider companies like Betterment or Wealthfront, just to name a few. Last, you can always do it yourself. You may be unsure, afraid, and may make a few mistakes along the way. After placing a few trades, most investors get the hang of it after a while.
What do you think is the most common misconception people make about investing?
The biggest misconception is that you have to have a lot of money to get started. That is simply false. Brokerage firms and online apps have made it easier and less expensive to invest. Investors can buy fractional shares now. So if they don’t have $100 to buy one full share of stock, they can invest $50 and buy half a share or even $25 and buy a quarter of a share. I tell my clients, that rather than focusing on a dollar amount, let’s focus on having a strategy and discipline. Let’s create a dollar-cost averaging strategy. Choose a solid stock(s) or exchange-traded fund and decide how much you are going to invest every month and on what date you are going to make the investment. Statistics show that doing this over the long term is one of the most profitable strategies.
Beside’s your YouTube Channel and online course do you have any new projects you are working on?
Of course, I am focusing on expanding my YouTube Channel to grow my audience. So there will be plenty of content. As well, “She’s So Wealthy” Academy will offer an 8-week business course and an 8-week financial literacy course that will be available for classrooms, non-profit organizations, and divorcees. In addition, by the end of the year, I will roll out the “She’s So Wealthy” Podcast. But my biggest goal is to create a women’s millionaire circle. I need 100 women in that circle!
Anyone investing on their own may initially see it as intimidating, especially during a recession. Smith understands and is ready to help, through her courses on investing and how to be great. She wants to help prepare students for their futures and is doing it one class at a time.
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