With some 70% of young Brits now pursuing second jobs, there are lots of reasons why side hustles are becoming more popular.
The pandemic caused many people to consider career shifts, while working from home allowed them extra time to spend on alternative pursuits. The current cost-of-living crisis, meanwhile, has understandably left many people looking for ways to boost income.
Investing is often touted as one of the best ways to build wealth as – following initial research at least – the returns can be earned passively. This is markedly different to delivery driving, personal training or creating art or products, for example, which all require consistent time and effort.
There are lots of different approaches that can help keep things interesting too, from researching specific markets to trying new long and short-term strategies. For example, you could buy or sell assets traditionally, or use CFD trading to speculate on the underlying price of assets without ever owning them.
So what markets could you explore to begin with?
Stocks and shares
Stocks are what come to mind when most people think of trading. Trading stocks means investing in companies which you predict to enjoy future success, allowing you to profit as their stock price increases.
You could invest in companies you know and trust, or hunt opportunities in exploding sectors such as tech.
Forex
Forex trading involves buying and selling currencies on the foreign exchange market, with opportunities to profit arising from changes that increase or reduce one currency’s value compared to another.
Influencing factors on a currency’s value are economic and geopolitical, such as domestic inflation and interest rates, international trade and political stability.
Commodities
Commodities are raw materials such as agricultural products, precious and industrial metals and fossil fuels which are relied upon to produce finished goods. Prices are primarily driven by patterns of supply and demand which affect domestic and global economies.
Some assets such as gold are viewed as stable investments which can hold value better than currencies.
Cryptocurrency
Cryptocurrency is an area of investing which has slowly entered the mainstream through the rise of digital assets such as Bitcoin. Various factors have both supercharged and hampered cryptocurrency, with extreme fluctuations leading to significant gains and losses in recent years.
With many crypto assets crashing in 2022, some suggest that now could be a good time to buy low in anticipation of their resurgence.
Indices
Indices or index trading involves tracking the performance of a group of stocks, rather than investing in stocks individually. This could mean investing in an entire sector such as renewable energy in one move, rather than researching every related company separately.
Do any of these markets pique your interest? With a strong foundation of knowledge, you could soon start generating passive income.
