With 2020 having been a difficult year for just about everybody financially, it’s a good bet that more people are about to start taking the idea of investment more seriously.

Maybe that means revamping an existing portfolio according to present conditions. But for many of you, it might mean starting from scratch, and investing for the first time.

This is a big step to take in your personal financial journey, and one that — as you might imagine — requires a great deal of research and consideration. Preparation for investment is not, therefore, something we can cover in a single post (to say nothing of the fact that it’s also something you should trust true experts on!). But what we can do is recommend some of the tools and assets you’ll need at your disposal if you’re going to get started with personal investment.  These are four such things we’d consider to be essential.

1. Cleared Debts  

Okay, so cleared debt isn’t a “tool,” per se. But it is an incredible asset for your investment journey, as well as for personal investment in general.  Some are of the opinion that you should actually invest money before clearing yourself of debt, so that the investment has time to grow. And there might be something to that idea for very specific types of investment, such as a retirement fund that compounds over time. But the more logical stance is that you should do all you can to rid yourself of debt before you start investing. 

The debt-versus-investing argument is an ongoing one, but the general idea behind addressing debt first is that you will simply make yourself more financially flexible. You’ll have more disposable income, more investing options, a better credit rating, and so on — all of which can put you in a better position to start contributing to a portfolio. Plus, if you take the invest-first side of things, you have to consider the possibility that your first investments don’t pay off, or don’t pay off quickly. Then you’re in limbo, with less money to pay down debts with. So our first suggestion is clear: You want cleared debts on your side when you start investing!

2. A Brokerage Account  

You’ll find a lot of creative ideas for different ways to invest out there today, including doing it through any number of clean looking, appealing new apps. There are plenty of ways to do it, but in this case the old-fashioned option tends to be the most stable.  

That means opening a brokerage account, which is essentially like a checking account for your investments. You can open such an account with an investment firm or a brokerage (including in some cases via apps belonging to such institutions). Once your account is open, you can stock it with funds that you will then use to purchase stocks and other investable assets, such that everything is in one place.  

It’s the sort of thing you’ll need to read up on so that you can learn how to use it, which brokerages are more reliable, what conditions to seek out, and so on — because there are a lot of options. But a brokerage account is basically the home of your personal investments, and thus an essential tool to look into early on.

3. A Suite of Apps  

Let’s face it: It’s 2020, and you’re inevitably going to be doing something app-based to help with your investment. So we’d recommend you embrace the idea, and actually double down on it. That means creating a suite of apps on your mobile devices that are there purely to help with your financial analysis and investment decisions.  

This doesn’t just mean having a mobile app for trading, such as one attached to your brokerage of choice. It may also mean having an app that gives you access to financial podcasts, many of which have excellent day-to-day investing advice. It might mean having basic mobile tools that can track the markets or keep you updated on financial news. Once you give thought to expanding your portfolio, you may even have apps dedicated to trading assets your ordinary brokerage doesn’t deal in — such as a cryptocurrency or gold trading app.  

Whatever the specifics, embrace those mobile tools! They can teach you a lot when it comes to investing.  

4. Alexa  

Last but not least, we’d recommend you invite Alexa into your personal investment journey! The latest smart speakers from Amazon are fantastic for a lot of different reasons, really, but one is that they can actually help you with your investment decisions.  

Through the newest versions of Alexa devices, and certain apps and tools compatible with those devices, you can do anything from check the price of a given stock, to issue a buy order for your account. It’s actually a fairly impressive convenience, and one that can be essential if you’re trying to manage an investment portfolio from home while doing other things, as so many people do these days. 

So, happy investing! Again, you’ll need to do quite a lot of self-educating before you actually start making the financial decisions. But as you ease into personal investment, these tools, assets, and ideas can help you get off to a great start.