A long time ago I bought a variety box from Sephora that came with a set of Huda Beauty false eyelashes.  I often looked wistfully at this wonderful creation.

If only I were that kind of woman. You know, the type who can skilfully apply false lashes and breeze out into the night.

Well dear reader, it turns out I am.

My friend Amara provided encouragement and coaching. I watched Huda herself apply them in an Instagram video. She made it look not that hard.

And so, with a wedding to attend, I figured it was now or never.

First attempt was clumsy. They seemed huge, I could feel them attached to my eyelids, and they obscured my vision slightly.

But by the end of the night, having consumed at least an entire bottle of champagne and taken about 347 selfies, I was telling anyone who’d listen that they had become part of me.

‘I’m actually a cyborg now: part human, part eyelash’. You’re dead right, I am an entertaining wedding guest.

Wedding Selfie no. 243

So anyway, I pulled them out again for Cup Day, because well, why not look good if work is paying for your lunch and booze?

Cup Day selfie no. 67 – please note my crown

This time it was much easier; they stayed in place easily and I quickly activated cyborg mode.

Then this week, I lashed up for a Fierce Girl photo shoot (more to come on this). By now, I managed to do it no-stress, first time and at 6am. Kim Kardashian, eat your heart out.

The reason I am telling you this otherwise tedious story, is that it proves a point about life, cosmetics and investing.

I had previously approached the issue with a lack of confidence. I was overawed. “I’m not the type of person who does that”, I told myself.

But I’ve almost mastered it now, thanks to gentle encouragement, online research and a first attempt that felt, frankly, clumsy and uncomfortable.

I also chose a quality, trusted brand. (Surprisingly, the $3 ones from Daiso are vastly inferior to the $40 ones from Sephora. Who knew?)

If you’ve thought about investing, but been overwhelmed by it, you should take heart from this story. And the next one.

I met a bloke at the ASX Investor Conference in Brisbane last week. I call him a ‘bloke’ because that’s what he is: a salt-of-the-earth fellow with a broad Queensland accent.

If this were a meme, the conversation would go:

Nobody:

Absolutely nobody:

Queensland bloke: You know what, I’ve made an average of 7% a year since 1999 by investing in shares.

Consider: if old mate had invested $10,000 back when Britney was singing Hit Me Baby One More Time, then added another $500 per month, he’d have made up to $285,000 by now. (That’s an estimate only and doesn’t allow for the sequencing of returns, but you get the picture).

If he does the same for the next 10 years, it could jump to over $600,000, thanks to the magic of compound interest. As the Backstreet Boys said in 1999, I Want it That Way.

 

Oh baby, baby, how was I s’posed to know that I should have been investing in 1999, instead of drinking cheap wine and flirting with boys?

Following this unsolicited disclosure, I asked my new friend some questions. He holds about 25 stocks at one time (pretty standard). He picks them based on broker reports, media articles and a good old dose of gut instinct. His best performing pick was Blackmores – bought in at $10 and it’s now over $200 per share. Part of his rationale? He saw the products in the pharmacy and knew the brand.

He also picked some dogs, like Slater & Gordon, where he threw good money after bad. (Nothing about investing in a law firm sounds attractive to me, but … each to their own.)

He lost a lot in the GFC, but hung in there and the portfolio recovered over time.

And that, my friends, is how you make money in equities.

I’m here to tell you, if old mate Queenslander who lived on a farm for twenty years can do it, you can too.

There are different ways to access listed investments. A fund manager can do it for you, you can buy a low-cost ETF, a roboadvice provider can hook you up, or you can just choose them yourself. I’ve written a whole post about it here.

The overarching message is this: anyone – including you – can build their wealth through listed investments. You need some baseline knowledge, a willingness to try and a good deal of patience.

You can always start small – exchange-traded products don’t have a minimum investment. (Well, technically buying one unit is the minimum).

Of course you need to be mindful of risk and time horizons. A rule of thumb is that shares suit investors who have at least a five-year time horizon. That allows the ups and downs to balance out over time.

And diversification is important. Old mate had actually lost money on the property he owned (it was in the country) so was happy he had his wealth spread across different asset classes.

Long story short, if I can nail false eyelashes, you can totally nail the stockmarket.