Imagine putting $100 somewhere and coming back a few days later and there’s $110. What about leaving it for a year and coming back to find $1000. And all you had to do is put it in the right place and leave it alone. That’s investing. That’s putting your money to work for you.

The trick is, to only put an amount that you’re willing to lose and not to panic when things aren’t going in your favor. Start with your nails money, your club money, your eating out money or your tax refund.

How do I invest in stock?

🗝️I only invest money I’m ok with losing. (Stocks are a gamble. You can win big and fast and lose just as easily too)
🗝️I invest in companies I want my family to own a piece of, not market trends that fluctuate constantly. Aim isn’t just to make money, it’s to generate wealth for you and your legacy.
🗝️I invest in things I think have a good chance of outliving me. So I literally spend hours thinking of things people are always gonna need/use. Things like garbage disposal, water, bleach, energy pharmaceuticals and so on.

🗝️ I invest in innovative companies that display a tenacity for adapting to change and acquiring companies who are ahead of the curve. Companies like Facebook (acquisitions include WhatsApp and Instagram) and Amazon (67 acquisitions including Zappos, IMDb, WholeFoods and Audible)
🗝️I invest in things I use everyday. If I find myself using a certain toothpaste all the time I buy some of the parent company for that toothpaste. If I watched a lot of HBO, I may purchase some TimeWarner
🗝️I use online accounts like E-Trade to transfer funds directly from my bank account to my trading account.

Recently I’ve used these same strategies to invest in companies trading on the Jamaican and Bahamian markets. Bloomberg reported that Jamaica currently has the best performing stock exchange in the world. Yup, WORLD. With the dollar being 1:134, that means you can own a whole lot more for fractions on the US dollar. For example, investing $1.20USD in a company like Grace Kennedy could buy you 2 shares ($69JA per share). For a little over $50USD (a mani and pedi) you could own 100 shares of a prominent food company.

In Jamaica, I went with JMMB.

Their customer experience is superb! In addition, when wiring from the states the dollar conversion is according to the market (the amount you’d see if you searched how many Jamaican dollars equals 1USD on Google). Scotiabank would have charged a hefty fee for the wiring and was converting the dollar at almost $20 less than its value (ie while JMMB was coverting $1USD to $134JA, Scotia was converting it to $117).

Other companies like MVL, Sagicor, NCB, Mayberry, and VMBS also charge on average 2% per transaction as well as additional fees. JMMB’s cost per transaction and fees are in total approximately 2%. E-trade charges a standard $6.95USD per transaction, regardless of the amount spent on the trade. Unless you’re investing really hefty amounts, the 2% JMMB charge really isn’t that bad.

You don’t have to be a Jamaican citizen to open a stock brokerage account with JMMB. However, you will have to set up your account in person. Upon doing so, you’ll have immediate access to their online MONEYLINE platform that allows you to make your own trades precisely the way online brokerage firms like E-Trade do.

In the Bahamas, it is not required that you set your account up in person. And you don’t have to be a citizen of the Bahamas. However, you will have to make your transactions through an actual broker as opposed to via an online banking system. In addition, their market is also only open from 10am to 12noon. Yup, 2 whole hours. It’s a swirl of inconvenience, but if you buy smart and forget about it, you can establish a pretty decent portfolio there as well.

If you have any questions or tips, please add them in the comments. Let’s get this schmoney and break these generational curses together my friend.