One of the first things you learn when you start exploring the world of finance, trading, and investments is that no two assets are exactly alike. Your decision to pursue assets from the fixed income class—such as bonds, for example—will yield a very different outcome than a venture into real estate.
But the same also goes for your approach to pooling your money towards something for a profit. You can go the route of traditional investment, or you can take what financial experts call the more “speculative” approach.
What distinguishes investing from speculating, and which of these two approaches should you choose for your own journey towards financial fulfillment? To help you make an informed decision, here’s a briefer on the two approaches.
This info should be quite useful whether you’re looking at traditional investments like stocks and bonds or up-and-coming speculative assets like Monero (XMR) cryptocurrency in a Monero wallet.
What Are the Key Differences between Speculating and Investing?
Though you may have heard these two terms used in similar contexts, especially when it comes to buying or selling assets, they mean two very different things.
Put simply, investment is the tried-and-tested approach that involves choosing assets based on their commonly accepted or intrinsic value. Speculation, by contrast, involves theorizing on assets whose value and future are a little more unsure.
Between the two, investing is the far more common stance to take when venturing into new assets. Often, beginners and conservative traders base their investment decisions on their chances of satisfactory returns.
They look for evidence of stable and predictable gains by analyzing the market and seeing if the asset has a history of performing well. For those who favor the traditional investment approach, decisions are made on proof like dividends, favorable-looking balance sheets, continuous year-to-year growth, and the like.
Those who are more interested in speculative assets, however, have less control and knowledge of how their chosen assets will perform. They make their next moves based on educated guesses or theories about what will happen to their markets, which are oftentimes very new ones.
That also means that speculators take on much more risk than traditional investors do. The former know less about their chances of success than the latter do and are therefore more susceptible to risk.
Is one approach inherently better than the other? Not necessarily. Those who believe in surer methodologies for gaining a profit may gravitate towards traditional investing.
This, in turn, will reward them with greater peace of mind and increased predictability in their financial journey. But when a financial innovation makes it big and revolutionizes the market in ways that “safer” traders don’t expect, the speculators and risk-takers will be the first in line to reap the benefits.
Speculation Versus Investment: Which Should You Do?
Now that you know a little more about speculating and investing, you’re in a better position to decide which of these approaches to take with your own money.
But here are some other factors that you should take into consideration before you buy into either a traditional asset or a speculative asset like cryptocurrency:
How Much Risk Can You Handle?
The biggest difference between investing and speculating is the degree of risk involved. Before you make a final call about whether to go for a conventional investment or a speculative asset, determine how much risk you’re ready to take on.
Come up with a concrete number, like a fixed amount of money or a certain percentage of your income, to represent your risk threshold. Then, choose an asset that realistically reflects how much risk you can handle. This can be your course of action for your future financial decisions, whether they involve traditional investments or speculative assets.
How Much Can You Afford to Lose?
For both approaches, it’s important to remember that you should never, ever risk more money than you’re willing to lose. There’s always a chance that you’ll lose money when you make any kind of investment, even if you opt for traditional asset classes. That said, you definitely stand to lose more if you take on the inherently riskier approach of speculation.
The amount of money you’re willing to pledge may resolve this dilemma for you. If you can’t afford to lose much, then it’s best to make a more predictable and less demanding investment. But if you have a comfortable amount of money to spare and you’re all right with risking it, then you can make your first forays into speculative assets like crypto.
What Returns Do You Want?
Last but not least, consider the returns you want from either investing or speculating. Different people are after different things, and financial success with either approach varies from person to person.
Your decision on what kind of asset to pursue should match your financial aspirations. So, try to articulate your financial goals to yourself before you buy into either speculative assets or conventional investments.
Do you want steady and predictable gains for each month or year that you invest your money? Or are you after the exclusive satisfaction of getting a great financial reward from a decision that few others are bold enough to make? Your answer will determine which of these approaches will be most beneficial to you.
Whether you choose to invest or speculate, remember to stay updated on your desired markets, research and compare assets carefully, and regularly take all your finances into account.
In short, do your best to make decisions that are wise, practical, and rewarding from your current financial standpoint. This will ensure that every venture you make into either investments or speculative assets gets you closer to your personal goals.
