When Anna turned 25, she made a promise to herself:
“This year, I’m going to start investing.”

The problem?
She had no idea how.
Stocks, bonds, mutual funds — it all sounded like a secret language spoken by people who wore suits and read complicated financial newspapers.

Anna wasn’t rich. She worked a regular office job, paid rent, and sometimes stressed about whether she could afford a weekend trip out of town.
Investing seemed like something future Anna should worry about — you know, when she was "ready."

But one lazy Saturday, after scrolling past yet another TikTok about "money moves" and "financial freedom," she decided to actually look it up.
To her surprise, the first thing she learned was this:

👉 You don’t need a lot of money to start. You just need to start.

Step 1: Anna Learned the Basics

She found out that investing isn’t about getting rich overnight.
It’s about making your money grow over time, so that one day you have choices — to retire earlier, to travel, to help family, to simply breathe easier.

Anna also learned about something called inflation — how the ₱1,000 you have today won’t buy you the same things ten years from now.
Investing was simply a way to stay ahead.

Step 2: She Picked a Simple Way to Begin

Instead of stressing about individual stocks or trying to “pick winners,” Anna decided to start with something easy:
👉 An index fund.

An index fund is like a big basket of different companies.
By investing in it, she wasn’t betting on just one — she was betting on the overall economy growing over time.

Less risky. More beginner-friendly. Just her style.

Step 3: Anna Started Small

Anna downloaded a beginner-friendly investing app and deposited just $50 (around ₱2,800).
It wasn’t a huge amount — it was less than what she usually spent on a weekend with friends.

But it was hers.

She set up an automatic plan to add $20 a month.
Nothing painful. Just a quiet, consistent habit, like watering a plant.

Step 4: She Let Time Do Its Thing

In the beginning, Anna checked her app almost every day — watching her investment move up and down by a few cents.

It was nerve-wracking.
But she remembered what she had read:
The real magic of investing is time. Not timing.

So she stopped looking every day. She focused on her life.
Over months and years, her tiny investment started to quietly grow — like a tiny snowball rolling down a hill, gathering more and more snow.

Two Years Later

Today, Anna’s portfolio isn’t massive.
But it's hers — and it's growing.
More importantly, she feels different.

She’s no longer scared of money talk.
She’s no longer waiting for some "perfect day" to take control of her future.

She’s already doing it.

You Can Be Like Anna

You don’t need thousands of pesos.
You don’t need a finance degree.
You don’t need to wait for some magical “right time.”

You just need to be brave enough to start small — and smart enough to keep going.

Your future self will thank you.