How and where can I start my investment journey? How much money do I need to start investing? How can I learn about investing?

Roxana Mohammadian-Molina, Chief Strategy Officer at investment platform Blend Network, is used to answering those questions.

Here, she shares her ‘top tips’ to start investing and discusses how her platform Blend Network can help you start building your investment portfolio.

I am often approached by young professionals and asked how to create a steady path towards self-built wealth when working long hours means they are often overworked and time-poor. My answer is always unvaryingly the same: creating wealth comes down to self-discipline.

The perception that the path towards financial freedom and wealth requires a unique set of skills, specialised expertise or even excessive risks is often unfounded. Instead, what we observe at Blend Network is that anyone can kick-start their investment journey with as little as £1,000 and take control of their portfolio by simply deciding the projects they want to invest in. Here I share five ‘top tips’ that often come up in the candid conversations I share with a number of our investors where they tell me discipline sits at the core of investing.

Create supportive networks

We should not pursue the journey to financial freedom alone but should network to join communities we can trust with money questions and concerns in which we feel free to share information, experience and advice. The lack of such communities is a bigger barrier to achieving financial freedom among women: while over four in ten men say they would know how to find suitable investment products if they wanted to invest some of their cash, the same is true of only 27% of women. Yet creating, finding and joining such communities that provide safe spaces to encourage us to discuss money requires discipline.

Educate yourself

As money management and investing are still not part of the curriculum, we must educate ourselves and spend time understanding basics of financial management. More knowledge will lead to greater confidence, which will allow us to become more independent when it comes to investing. Knowledge is power and unpicking jargon allows taboos to get overturned through conversation facilitated in a ‘safe space’.

Celebrate success and female role models

It is important for us to see and celebrate other successful female investors and to encourage each other. Yet doing this and tackling the ‘Old Boys Club’ perception of investing requires discipline to ensure their positive stories will encourage other women see what can be achieved by investing. I dedicate my own Twitter account to sharing powerful stories of formidable women who are role models to us all.

Embrace the difference

Women’s more risk-averse nature should be embraced. Female investment priorities are different, not inferior. Investing does not have to be full of risk to be successful and if women understand that their individuality is an asset, it will help encourage them to invest in a way that is appropriate for them and for their own risk profile. Once again, a commitment to embracing the difference requires discipline to learning about our investment priorities and building an investment portfolio that is aligned with our risk profile.

Start small

We as women need to spread the message and understand that you don’t need to be rich to be an investor. We can start with the smallest amounts, e.g. £1 per day, and build up our confidence. Also, you don’t need to invest all your savings. This is a message that will resonate a lot with women because we as women tend to be more risk averse.

Roxana Mohammadian-Molina is Chief Strategy Officer and Board Member at Blend Network and sits on the Board of Women in Finance 2020. Blend Network is a London-based P2P property lending platform where investors can invest from £1,000 on property-secured loans. Returns on Blend Network are 8-12% p.a. and all loans are secured against property.

Your capital is at risk if you lend to businesses. The Financial Services Compensation Scheme does not cover P2P lending. Investments are illiquid (the inability to sell assets quickly or without substantial loss in value). Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results. Blend Loan Network Limited is an Appointed Representative of Resolution Compliance Limited which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FRN. 574048)