Investment mistakes are always expensive, which is why it’s best to learn from the experiences of others. With that in mind, here are the top ten tips that most investors really wish they had heard (and believed) sooner.

1. Start Early

The power of compounding means that the sooner you start investing, the more time your money has to grow.

Even small, regular investments can add up significantly over time if they’re the right investments and if you wait for long enough.

Now, the best time to buy crypto is clearly in presale, so you have to find the top presale cryptos to choose from in order to maximize your profit.

There’s just one problem with this strategy: it’s really hard to know when to sell. We all love to imagine buying BTC at $1 per token and selling at $67k, but the truth is that you would have sold it as soon as it reached $20 (and you would feel so proud).

You need to have realistic expectations.

2. Diversify Your Portfolio:

Don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Spread your investments across different asset classes, sectors, and geographic regions to reduce risk.

Sure, if you knew which of your assets was going to yield the biggest profit, putting money into anything other than this would be pure waste. However, you don’t, and you need to have a contingency plan even if the market doesn’t move in the direction that will suit you the most.

When diversifying, make sure to pick assets that have a low correlation. Remember, you’re not doing this for profit but for safety.

3. Focus on Long-Term Goals

Investing is not a get-rich-quick scheme. Focus on your long-term financial goals and stay patient.

Understanding your long-term goals is also something that determines your overall trading strategy. Think about it: if you have a lot of time until retirement, you can afford to make a riskier investment here and there. The potential trade-off would be worth it, and even if things go wrong, you would still have the time to fix the problem.

Understanding why you’re saving money can also help you stay motivated. Wanting to buy a place, get married, start a family, and more are just some such goals, and they’re all great at keeping your eyes focused on the prize.

4. Educate Yourself

Take the time to learn about different types of investments and how they work. You need to understand the factors that affect these investments and all the financial mechanisms you have at your disposal to get the most from them.

Also, in order to learn risk management, you should definitely learn how to understand the odds. Now, we’re not suggesting that you go to anonymous casinos in order to get some practical experience on the subject matter (although any experience is valuable). Instead, look up a course on investing and risk management.

Formal education is unfairly underestimated, and you really need to do something about it.

5. Keep Emotions in Check

Avoid making impulsive decisions based on market fluctuations. Stick to your strategy and stay calm during market volatility.

Market conditions always change, and if you take our advice and diversify, you’ll always be in one or two markets where volatility is especially high. You can’t sell on every sign of change.

There are also a lot of psychological phenomena like the gambler’s fallacy or the sunken cost fallacy. Just because you have a subjective feeling about the future of the market, this really doesn’t mean too much.

Just remember to keep your emotions in check and always look ahead.

6. Regularly Review and Rebalance

Previously, we’ve talked about diversifying your portfolio based on correlation and market risks but these risks change over the course of time and you don’t want to be stuck in the past.

Let us return to Bitcoin really quickly. While its cost was still low, any movement on the market was incredibly high. Today, even if BTC loses $30K of value, we’re still talking about just 50% of its value, but in the past, when it jumped from $1 to $100, this was a 10,000% increase.

The point is that the conditions changed, and this is no longer the same investment.

So, periodically review your portfolio to ensure it aligns with your goals and risk tolerance. Rebalance as necessary.

7. Invest in What You Understand

Stick to investments you understand and avoid those that seem overly complex or speculative. Why? Well, because investing in an asset you don’t understand is no worse than gambling.

It’s even worse when you don’t know the rules; you’ll instinctively try to ascribe meaning to things that are happening, and you’ll always fail. These things are not intuitive, and trying to understand a chart by observing it is most likely going to result in a failure.

So, stick to something you understand best and then increase your efforts to learn even more.

8. Watch the Fees

High fees can erode your returns over time. Be mindful of the costs associated with your investments and look for low-cost options.

The problem with fees is that they don’t really provide you with any kind of value. They’re just a waste of money. You get the same amount of an asset you originally intended to buy; you just pay more for it.

If there are platforms that charge lower fees, buying there would be both intuitive and smart. You will be left with more money actually to spend on the assets you need.

9. Don’t Try to Time the Market

It’s nearly impossible to predict market movements consistently. Focus on time in the market rather than timing the market.

Previously, we talked about people who believed that they could have been the person to discover Bitcoin if they had another chance. Even if that were the case, they wouldn’t sell it at the best possible moment. Sure, some people sold at $17K or $21K in 2017, but what about those who waited until it dropped to $8K again?

What about those who sold at $17K? At the time, they made an insane profit, but today, a single BTC is worth $67K. There’s always better, and there’s always worse. Trying to time the market will make you go insane.

10. Stay Disciplined

Stick to your investment plan, even when the market is volatile. Consistency and discipline are key to successful investing.

This is one of the reasons why trading strategies are so popular. They make your trades more systematic and your performance on the market significantly more consistent. This is how you stay disciplined and ahead of the curve.

Remember that investing is a marathon and not a sprint.

Learning this in time is something that a lot of investors will envy you for

Let’s return to our favorite example - buying BTC pre-2017. If you could go back in time, you would have done it, but this is impossible. What’s not impossible is to learn these ten things in time for them to actually help you out. A lot of people made expensive mistakes because they didn’t take this seriously enough.