I'm 50+ and I am fed up of being caught on the ever turning wheel of the day to day grind. I am one of the luckier ones as I have a small pension and we own our home now which means I can work part time but I want to try and do more to see how varying 'micro' investments will work for me.
I am looking at 2 strategies
active - where I might physically do a job or buy something real
passive - where I put my money into something like a fund and let others worry about how it makes money.
I'm not starting from zero but pretty close so here's what I've done so far.
Micro investing via Wealthify - a passive investment
This have proved to be a better option than a regular savings account but as they say ' nothing is guaranteed'!
I invest £50 a month, with a tentative style and have increased the fund by 5.22% in the last 12 months and that includes a few rocky patches with the pandemic.
I will keep adding to this for as long as I am able to try and grow a small pot. If you're UK based you will understand that I have used an ISA so I won't need to pay tax on the earnings.
Regular savers - the traditional way - a passive investment
Investing via a regular monthly saver with my bank. I've been putting away £100 a month here for a return of 2.75%. I will agree this doesn't sound very attractive but the money is safe and the percentage is guarenteed. But after the year is up even deals of 2.75% are not there to be had so this may be the last investment of it's type for now.
I know you think all this is small fry but I'm just a regular gal with a small income who is not prepared to go his risk with her hard earns cash. I've seen too many people lose everything. If it's the equivalent to gambling then I'm not interested.
My first active investment
Dog walking - now this is in the traditional way to make a bit of cash. You sell your time. I charge £10 a walk and only deal with 1 person at the moment. This works for me because I walk anyway, we live in the countryside and the dog in question lives a 5 minute walk away. The downside of course it you still have to do it in the rain and they may drop something that you're legally required to pick up in the UK.
There's no outlay and I do it 3 times a week. I've only recently started but I may yet advertise for another client. So I'm getting £30 a week and some exercise.
I also sell things on eBay but just for now this is things we already have for the most part but I am considering trying a little active investment there.
Lastly for now I have my bees. Last year I started keeping bees as a hobby. I was lucky enough to have a friend lend me a hive and to be able to buy one second hand. Bee keeping is a long term investment as the honey only runs once a year and the start up costs are comparatively high. As we have a few acres behind our home it's ideally away from people. I've yet to work out how much honey I would need to sell to make a profit but it's probably going to be more to help support the hobby than anything else.
So where does this leave us - well I'm going to explore more options in the next 12 months. Hopefully I can keep you posted