Buying Jamaican stocks can seem like a daunting task, but the truth is it’s not as difficult as it seems.

Before we go any further, we first need to know what investing is. Simply put, investing is allocating resources, usually money, with the expectation of generating profit at a later date.

The most common form of investing and the easiest to get into is, investing in the stock market. The average person knows a thing or two about the stock market and/or supports the companies on the exchange in one way or another.

Every Jamaican should be invested in the stock market. We should all be buying Jamaican stocks. It can create the truest form of passive income if done correctly.

Buying companies on the Jamaica Stock Exchange is a very easy process. You just need a few things, a brokerage account, capital, and access to a device with an internet connection.

There are various brokers that offer this service, the two I would recommend are JMMB Investments and Sagicor Investment. They both offer quality service and have the most affordable transaction fees in the industry.

The process for opening the account might be slightly different for each broker, but can be completed in one day. Each account holder is given a unique identifier known as a JCSD number.

The Jamaica Stock Exchange has 4 types of markets, they are the Main Market, the Junior Market, the USD Market, and the Bond Market.

There are many listings on the exchange with new listings popping up from time to time. One of the largest listings was the listing of renewable energy company Wigton Wind Farm Limited.

This company IPO’ed at fifty cents Jamaican dollar (0.50 JMD) on April 17, 2019. Literally, every Jamaican could get a piece of this company. Wigton Wind Farms Limited is currently trading at a price of sixty-five cents Jamaica dollars (0.65 JMD) at the close of the market on Friday, March 19, 2021.

Why you should invest in the Jamaican market

Jamaica is ripe for investments and is currently undergoing a transformation to become a first-world country by 2030.

It’s hands down the investment and cultural hub of the Caribbean. I don’t think we need to say anything more than that to see the value of investing in Jamaica.

Historically, a stock market grows with the economy of the country it’s in. Jamaica is no exception, and by that logic, we are seeing many bargains currently.

You can purchase a share of a company for pennies on the dollar unlike in other developed nations such as the United States.

By dollar-cost averaging, you will see significant gains over the long term as you grow with the market. You will also receive lots of dividends throughout your investing lifetime.

Investing in great Jamaican companies for the long-term will enable you to build generational wealth that will be passed on to the next generation.

Creating and keeping wealth in the family is very important especially if you came from a poor background.

Are you ready to start investing in Jamaica?

If you’ve ever asked why cryptocurrency, then you are miles ahead of the average citizen. It means you are interested in learning about the industry that will revolutionize the way we live.

What I learned from studying successful individuals is, whoever gets into a new trend early usually becomes wealthy. The richest man in the world, Jeff Bezos is a perfect example. Look at what he did with Amazon.

Trends such as investing in a specific stock most people don’t recognize the value of, buying land in an underdeveloped but potential area, or the most notable one in my opinion selling products on the internet. Just like with the internet in its early stages, we are seeing a new trend develop. This trend is called Blockchain Technology or internet 2.0. Out of Blockchain Technology emerged what is known as cryptocurrency.

Cryptocurrency is a digital or virtual currency that is secured by cryptography, which makes it nearly impossible to counterfeit or double spend. Examples of cryptocurrencies include Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Bitcoin is the earliest and most popular cryptocurrency that was created in January 2009. It is said to have been created by a mysterious person, group, or entity known as Satoshi Nakamoto.

It’s the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization. Bitcoins are created as a reward for a process known as mining. They can be exchanged for other currencies, products, and services.

Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency, without a central bank or single administrator. It can be sent from user to user on the peer-to-peer network without the need for intermediaries.

Ethereum is an open-source, blockchain-based, decentralized technology used to power its own cryptocurrency, Ether, and thousands of decentralized applications.

It enables Smart Contracts and Distributed Applications (DApps) to be built and run without any downtime, fraud, control, or interference from a third party.

Ethereum is the world’s programmable blockchain. It builds on Bitcoin’s innovation, with some big differences. Ethereum is for more than payments, it’s a marketplace of financial services, games, and apps that can’t steal your data or censor you.

Benefits of Cryptocurrency

Ease of transactions: Crypto removes the need for middlemen when doing business or dealing with brokers or legal representatives.

Low transaction fee: Crypto drastically decreases the transaction fees when doing transactions.

More confidential: Each cryptocurrency transaction is a unique exchange between two parties, which protects users from issues like identity theft.

Helping the unbanked: Globally, more people have access to the internet than they have to banks. Crypto opens the opportunity for the underprivileged to establish credit and access other bank-related services.

Whether we like it or not, cryptocurrency will become a part of our daily lives. The wise thing to do is to learn as much as we can about this new technology. We should also take advantage of the potential utilities that are yet to be discovered.

I recommend researching and owning a few cryptocurrencies with real-world use cases, as you wait on the rest of the world to see their value. This is how you profit from a new trend, by being early.

Do you agree with the statement above?

Starting the journey to financial freedom is easier said than done, I know this more than anyone else. I knew I always wanted to become financially free but didn’t know the first step.

I ended up working for many years before I decided to take the leap. Before taking the leap, I started to put things in place to make my transition easier. The steps were:

• Gaining knowledge of the field
• Building up an emergency fund
• Letting go of societal expectations

Gain Knowledge

Before jumping into anything, you need to gain some knowledge or better yet an in-depth understanding of the venture or undertaking.

I started to read all I could find on acquiring financial freedom. I bought various books and watched a lot of YouTube videos. In my opinion, the YouTube videos did a lot for me. I’m more of a visual person, I don’t like to read but I had to do what I needed to do.

When seeking knowledge, an important practice is to find a mentor or someone that has accomplished what you are trying to do.

I found many mentors, but the ones that stood out the most to me were people like – Warren Buffet, Steve Jobs, and Michael Lee-Chin just to name a few.

Emergency Fund

First of all, what is an emergency fund? An emergency fund is simply money you’ve set aside for life’s unexpected events or in times of financial distress.

This should be a norm for everyone whether you are starting a venture or not. Life throws us curveballs all the time, it’s best to be prepared.

What I did was save at least 30-40% of my income, it was not easy but was necessary to accomplish my goal. I avoided hanging out with friends and buying the latest stuff. This part was easy for me because I’m an introvert and I consider myself to be frugal.

The final step with having an emergency fund was controlling my expenses. Instead of eating out, I focused on cooking. I did my best to ensure my utilities were as low as possible. My venture was online so I didn’t have to worry about travel expenses, apart from those I didn’t have many expenses.

Societal Expectation

The societal expectation is not necessarily bad in its entirety but can increase your anxiety. For me, it was a real issue because what people say and think can get to you whether you agree or not.

I wanted freedom but was scared to let people know. At one point I was just going to continue on my path to becoming an accountant even though I knew I would be miserable.

Doing an unconventional job like Blogging, YouTube, or even Forex was seen as a waste of time and not a real job by others. Telling people or even getting the necessary support to take the leap was not so easy, especially if you work in a corporate job.  It would be seen as giving up something that is good for something that is uncertain.

How I overcame this was by not caring anymore and doing what was best for me. At the end of the day, it’s my life, and how I choose to live it was up to me ultimately.

Luckily I got support from a few close people so it wasn’t extremely hard making the transition. Getting the necessary support is very important and I would advise having even one person on your side when pursuing your venture.

Seeking financial freedom was the best thing I ever did and wouldn’t change it for the world. I’m still on my journey and can’t wait to see where I end up.

Are you on your Journey?

Is it possible to Pay yourself with dividends? before we go any further, you need to know what a dividend is. A dividend is the distribution of some of a company’s earnings to its shareholders, as determined by the company’s board of directors.

Growing up I didn’t know what dividends were, but when I found out it’s like a light bulb went off in my head. I started to read everything I could find relating to dividends and how I could get involved.

That’s when I came upon the stock market and investing, this is when my career path of becoming an accountant changed to becoming an investor. I started to focus solely on how to pay yourself with dividends.

When you hear the word investing, you think of numbers on a screen that is hard to understand. Investing is simply putting money away now for a higher return in the future.

To start collecting dividends you need to open a brokerage account and start purchasing shares of high-quality dividend-paying stocks.

If possible try to automate this, it will eliminate the chances of you spending the money foolishly. You should be investing a minimum of 10% of your earnings each time you get paid.

The amount of dividends you will receive is dependent upon the number of shares you own. This means that to actually live solely off dividends, you need to invest a lot of money upfront or over a period of time. This figure will be different for each person based on where you live and your expenses or lifestyle.

To answer the question above; “Yes, you can live off dividends.”

My final question to you is, when will you start the process?