How To Invest in 2026 For Beginners: Simple plan

If you've ever thought, I know I should be investing, but I don't know where to start or what if I lose all my money? Then this video is for you. If you've Never met, I'm Dr. Andy Gwim, investor for 21 years, former salaried NHS GP. And investing was one of the tools that helped me hit my financial freedom goals and leave my salary draw three years ago. I've now thought over 1500 NHS professionals through Moneywise Doctor and I also wrote the Amazon bestseller on investing, retirement planning and personal finance. The book called the money wise Dr. So it ranked also in money management. Now, here's the uncomfortable truth. The biggest risk in investing is not a market crash. I've lived through three market crashes. The biggest risk is never starting at all or starting the wrong way. Because most people don't lose money by being reckless. They lose money by doing nothing or by buying the wrong thing in the wrong accounts for the wrong goal. Now, so today I'm going to give you a clean beginner friendly roadmap for investing in 2026 and beyond. We'll cover what investing actually is without the jargon and nonsense, the simple strategy I would use if I was starting again today and the biggest fears beginners have and how to overcome them. Now, the Money Wise Doctor checklist is also something I teach to professionals before they start investing. Something I call scrubs. I'll share that with you now, but a quick disclaimer. This is education, it's not personal financial advice. I don't know your full situation, so just use this to get clear, then decide your next step or get advice if you need. So let's get into it now. First, what investing. What is it all about? What is it that people get wrong? It's not day trading, it's not crypto hype, it's not trying to turn £500 into $500,000 in one day. Real investing is simple. You are putting money into productive assets so it can grow over time. Now, the reason you need to do this is one big enemy. Inflation. Inflation is the silent tax. It quietly reduces what your money can buy. So if you save a £10,000 in cash and inflation is running ahead of your interest rate, you may feel safe, but you're getting poorer in real terms. That's why investing matters now. It's not because it's glamorous, it's not because it's. But it's defensive actually. It's how you stop a lot of money becoming a little over time. Now, when you invest, you generally make money in two ways. One is growth. The thing you bought becomes more valuable over time. Two, income. The thing you bought pays you cash flow like dividends or interest. Now property does both. In theory, stocks can do both too. And for most beginners, the simplest, most accessible, most proven place to start is stocks and shares using funds like index funds. So let's talk about that now. Stocks and shares. I'll explain it clearly. For beginners, when you buy a share, you are buying a small piece of a company. Now you can make money from shares in two main ways. The share price goes up over time. Capital gains. Some companies also pay dividends, which is a share of the profits paid to shareholders owners. Now the big beginner mistake is this is trying to pick the winning stocks. You think investing. For most beginners, I think investing means choosing the next Tesla, the next Nvidia, the next big thing. But unless you are a full time professional or a very experienced stock picker, is a very hard game. I know from experience. So here's a strategy I share with beginners in my master classes. Stop trying to pick needles. Buy the whole haystack. That's what an index fund does. An index fund is just a basket of many companies held in one one investment. So instead of betting on one company, you own a slice or hundreds or thousands of them, you own a slice of thousands of them. So you get instant diversification. It's less stressful and less need to constantly monitor the news. You can't invest confidently if you are one emergency away from financial disaster. You need to build your financial foundations first. I've read over 250 books on personal finance and business. Not one of them explains specific issues that affect medics like NHS pensions, financial anxiety, investing, student loans and much more. Hi, I'm Dr. Andy Egwim. I'm the founder of moneywisedoctor.com for over 21 years I've been investing and studying personal finance. In fact, three years ago I left my salaried NHS GP job after achieving financial independence. Since then, over 1,200 medics have joined our Tax Efficient Investing Master classes that are totally free. And much more than that. 10,000 doctors and healthcare professionals have used my content to make smarter financial decisions and avoid costly mistakes. That's why I wrote the Money Wise Doctor. The Money Wise Doctor is a step by step guide. The book to simplify the path from confusion to clarity for medics and to help you make smarter financial decisions and avoid costly mistakes that can affect your future. We've already helped thousands of doctors learn how to save smarter, invest, tax efficiently and finally feel in control in charge of their financial future. Now if you're ready to gain clarity, confidence and control with your money, the.

Money Wise Doctor book is now available. Click on the link below to order your copy now and start your journey to financial freedom.

And Historically a strong long term track record has been demonstrated by index funds in the UK. Commonly hear people talk about Global Equity Index Fund, US index funds, even UK index funds, FTSE All World FTSE 100. If you want it even simpler, here is the principle for long term investing. Most beginners would usually benefit from starting with broad, well diversified, low cost index funds and build from there. Now the next question is the one everyone asks. How do I actually start? Let's look at the practical steps to begin investing in 2026. Now decide what your money is for. That's the first step. It's the most important first step. Ask yourself this question. What is this money for and when will I need it? If you need the money in less than two to five years, the stock market may not be the right place or appropriate place because it can drop at exactly the wrong time when you need the money. So money for next year's tax bill or for your mortgage savings, a house deposit in two to three years or relocation cost, maternity or paternity leave or or even a planned career break or vacation. That is usually cash and low risk territory. Not for investing but money for retirement in the next 10 to 30 years or to decide to reduce your clinical sessions later or longer term wealth building or you're looking at financial freedom, financial independence. That's investing territory. You're thinking long term. Step two. You need to choose the right tax wrapper before you choose the investment. This is the money wise Dr. Rule wrapper first, investment second for tax efficiency. In the UK, the most powerful wrappers are usually for beginners. Friendly ones are stock and shares isa. I mean Canada has tfsa. But inside the stock and shares ISA growth is totally tax free. Dividends are tax free. Withdrawals are tax free. If you invest outside an isa, like many people have done, you may face a dividend tax or capital gains tax depending on your situation. So if you have your ISA allowance available for many people is the default starting point is up to £20,000 per tax year. Now step three pick a simple fund and automate your contributions. I mean don't over complicate it. You do not need 12 funds and a spreadsheet the size of a dissertation. Start with One broad, well diversified fund, global. Automate the monthly contribution and focus on consistency. The real circuit is not brilliant. It's staying invested long enough for compounding to do the heavy lifting. 4. Keep fees low. This matters more than most people realize. A 1 to 2% annual fee doesn't sound like much, but compounded over decades can cost you years of retirement freedom. So aim for low cost platforms, low cost, well diversified funds and a simple long term plan. Now even if you understand all of that, beginners still have fears. Let's handle some of the commonest ones. I hear the fears that stop people from investing. 1. What if I lose all my money? Well, if you're investing in a diversified global fund, the realistic risk is not going to zero overnight. I mean the real risk is volatility up and down. Your investment will go up and down, sometimes sharply. Okay. Now the key difference between investors who win long term and people who lose money is simple winners. Don't panic. Sell. Most losses become permanent because people sell during a downturn when the market is down. So the real rule is only invest money. You can live alone for long enough. Number two, Fear. Should I wait for the perfect time? Most beginners try to time the market. Look, timing is hard. The long term pattern of market is that they trend upwards over time with some ugly dips along the way. So for beginners a simple approach is regular investing, maybe monthly or whatever pattern works for you and that reduces the timing risk and builds the habit. Number three, what if I pick the wrong thing? Now this is why we start with broad diversified funds. If you buy the market, you don't need to be right about one company and you're backing the long term growth of businesses as a whole. Now before you invest even a single pound or penny, I want you to run a quick checklist. This is the checklist I teach in my master classes and also in my book. It's called the Scrubs framework. Scrubs. So the Scrubs is basically a money wise doctor investing readiness checklist. It's in my book before every invasive procedure as doctors is scrubbing before every investment, you should do the same check. So Scrubs protects you from the biggest enemy of investing success. Being forced to sell early when life happens. So here's Scrubs s is the safety net. Do you have an emergency fund? If you are employed, think of three to six months of essential living expenses. If you are self employed or local, maybe six months or more. Because without a buffer, just one crisis can force you to sell your investments at the worst possible time. Now C is for clarity and continuous education. Do you know what's coming in, what's going out, what your surplus each month and are you learning enough to avoid panic selling during market dips? What are you doing to improve your education? R is remove high interest debt. If you have debt charging high interest often that's the first guaranteed return. Paying off expensive debt can outperform most investments with zero risk. U is on the right your risk. If your income stops, what happens? Income protection, life insurance, the basics. Those are important because the biggest asset you own is your ability to earn and then B is build your blueprint. So what are you investing for? What's the time horizon? What's your risk tolerance? What's your risk capacity? Investing without a plan is like treating without a diagnosis and then the final S is shield from taxes. Use the right wrapper stocks and shares. I saw your pensions, whatever that you need and then advanced options obviously later only if appropriate, like the like the seis. So once the scrubs is in place, you're no longer investing from stress, you're investing from a place of stability, good foundation and that is when compounding actually works. So a quick summary. If you remember nothing else, remember this Define the goal and time horizon. Use the right wrapper tax wrapper first. Start with simple diversified funds, automate monthly investing and then expect ups and downs. Don't panic. Sell scrubs first, then invest now. If you want a deeper step by step guide including how to combine your NHS pension and personal pension and invest in ISAs, how they fit together for long term retirement planning, I cover it in my Amazon best selling book, the Money Wise Doctor. If that would help. You can search the Money Wise Doctor on Amazon or use the link in the description to get a checklist. I've also included a couple of free resources below, including my newsletter where I share practical money strategies for busy professionals. And you also get my jargon buster for beginners who don't understand the terms and it's confusing. You can get those terms and understand that. I hope that helps. Now tell me in the comments. Tell me one thing that's holding you back from investing. Have you started investing already or is there one issue that is holding you back? Maybe you're not sure where to start or which platform to start with? Tell me, I'd like to know in the comments. And thank you for watching. If you want to understand how ISAs work, you can check in my videos here somewhere on the screen for my 2026 step by step ISA guide to tell you how to protect your money from tax when you're saving and investing. Hope that was helpful. All right then. Bye bye.

The Moneywise doctor Book is now available. Click on the link below to order your copy now and start your journey to financial freedom.