New to Investing? Steal My Simple, 3-Step Framework To Know If A Stock Is Right for You

Hey it’s Charlie,

Last week, someone replied to my email with a question that stopped me cold:

I sat there staring at my screen because I remembered that exact feeling.

That overwhelming sense of, “What if I choose wrong and lose everything?” or, “I’m too old to start all over, I just need this to work!”

And look I get it — when you first start your investing journey, it feels like everyone is speaking a foreign language.

But you won’t reap any rewards if you never take action, so we have to get over those faulty beliefs and just START!

To help you, today I’m sharing the stupidly simple 3-step framework I use every single time I consider buying an asset.

Whether it’s a stock, ETF, index fund, real estate, or anything else — it works whether it’s your first time or your 10,000th.

It’s the same framework that helped me go from “terrified of losing money” to confidently building a 7-figure portfolio by the age of 35.

This one has saved me from so many bad calls!

A few years ago, my brother got real into buying and selling crypto. He’d talk my ear off at family gatherings about what coin I should buy, or why this block chain was going to skyrocket soon.

He’d say to me: “Charlie, this is going to 100X in like 30 days. I’m telling you. Get in now!”

To me it all sounded like gibberish (still does).

Yet, I still felt that familiar pull.

That FOMO (fear of missing out) whisper of “What if he’s right and I miss out?”

But here’s the question I always ask myself in these situations:

Nope. Not even close.

So I passed.

(Spoiler: The coin tanked within two months. My brother doesn’t bring it up anymore.)

Here’s what I DO understand:

Do I use a credit card?

Yes. I have Visa, Mastercard and AMEX. All three are publicly traded companies in the stock market.

Do I shop somewhere regularly?

I’m at Costco every other weekend (don’t judge me). Amazon packages show up at my door like clockwork. Giant fills my prescriptions. All are on the stock market.

Do I wear specific brands?

I have way too many Target-brand yoga pants and OnCloud walking shoes.

✅Stock market.
✅Stock market.

These aren’t sexy picks. Nobody’s posting screenshots of their Costco stock gains with rocket emojis.

But I understand how these businesses work. I can see their value in my everyday life. I know why people keep using them.

And that understanding gives me confidence to hold through the inevitable dips.

THE RULE: If you can’t explain to a friend how a company makes money in under 2 minutes, you don’t understand it well enough to invest in it.

I’m warning you right now — your brain is going to try to sabotage you.

The market dropped 3% today? Your brain: “IT’S A CRASH! SELL EVERYTHING!”

The market jumped 5%? Your brain: “It’s too expensive to buy right now, wait for a dip!”

This is where most new investors lose money.

Not because they picked bad assets, but because they let their emotions drive the bus.

I learned this the hard way in 2020.

March hits, pandemic panic everywhere, and I watched my portfolio drop 30% in a matter of weeks. Every news headline screamed doom. Every Reddit thread predicted total collapse.

I almost pulled everything out.

But then I remembered something Warren Buffett said:

So I kept buying.

Same amount, every two weeks out of my paycheck, like clockwork. Whether the market was up or down.

That’s dollar-cost averaging.

You’re essentially training your brain like a muscle to ignore the noise.

Some weeks you’re buying when prices are high. Some weeks you’re getting a discount. Over time, it averages out.

And here’s what the actual data shows:

Over the last 100 years, the U.S. stock market has averaged 10-12% annual returns over the long term. Not every year - some years it’s down, some it’s up 20% - but the long-term trend is reliably up and to the right.

I don’t know about you, but I like those odds.

Those shares I kept buying during the 2020 crash? They’re up over 70% now.

THE RULE: Pick an amount you can invest consistently (weekly, biweekly, monthly) and stick to it. Market up? Buy. Market down? Buy. Market sideways? You guessed it - buy.

I learned this phrase from entrepreneur and investor Jaspreet Singh.

He has a YouTube channel called The Minority Mindset, which is all about thinking differently than the majority of people. He calls this “ABB”.

Here’s where I see so many people trip up.

They buy something on Tuesday with the plan to sell it Thursday when it (hopefully) goes up 5%.

That’s not investing. That’s trading.

And unless you’re a full-time day trader with sophisticated tools and years of experience, you’re (probably) going to lose money. Maybe even lots of it.

Meanwhile, the boring index funds and exchange traded funds (ETFs) I’m buying every two weeks? They’ve quietly increased my individual brokerage account by 22% this year.

In addition, over the last 15 years they’ve taken my retirement account from a total of $717 to over $400K. And I’ve got the receipts to prove it:

Notice how when I started I contributed a total of $342 the ENTIRE year!?

That’s literally all I could afford at the time. But I did it, and I kept doing it, and as I made more money, I slowly increased those contributions.

Investing is about continually buying net assets and holding them for the long haul.

You’re buying pieces of real businesses that generate real value over time.

Think of it like planting a tree.🌳

You don’t plant an oak tree on Monday and check Tuesday to see if it’s tall enough to sell for lumber.

You plant it, water it consistently, and let time do its thing.

THE RULE: When you buy an asset, ask yourself “Would I be comfortable holding this for at least 10 years?” If the answer is no, don’t buy it.

Let me show you how this actually works with a real-life example.

Last month, I was looking to add some AI to my individual brokerage account. I considered a few options:

Option A: A friend’s recommendation for some AI startup stock that “could be the next NVIDIA”

Option B: An AI ETF - AIQ

I bought Option B. Not exciting, but I can sleep at night.

Full transparency — this is not a get-rich-quick framework.

It won’t give you a story to brag about at upcoming Christmas parties.

It won’t lead to screenshots of 300% gains in four weeks.

What it will do is keep you from making catastrophic mistakes that wipe out your progress and jeopardize your financial future.

It will help you build real, lasting wealth slowly and steadily.

And it will let you stop obsessing over every market fluctuation and let you go live your life.

If you’re sitting on cash right now, unsure where to start, don’t overthink it.

Ask yourself the 3 questions:

If you get three Yes’s, you’ve probably found a good investment.

Pull the trigger and let it ride.

If you get any No’s, keep looking.

There’s no shortage of quality assets that meet all three criteria.

The wealth you’re building doesn’t need to be complicated. It just needs to be consistent.

Hope that helps!Your friend,

Charlie | Your Wealth Hype Girl

📌P.S. - Want help figuring out where to start?

I know this framework makes sense in theory, but applying it to your specific situation? That’s where people get stuck.

So I built something to help.

I’ve created a custom GPT that walks you through this exact framework based on your situation, risk tolerance, and goals. It’s like having me in your pocket, asking you the right questions to figure out your next move.

I’m looking for a handful of people to beta test it and give me honest feedback. If you’re interested, hit Reply and let me know. I’ll send you access.

No catch, no cost - I genuinely want to make this tool as helpful as possible, and that means hearing from real people trying to figure this stuff out. I will eventually charge for it so I can recoup some of my costs to build it, but for those beta testers it’s completely free!

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Also, please be careful with any suspicious people who try to impersonate me and ask you to send them money, so they can “invest” for you. There are tons of scammers out there. If you follow me on social media, I will NEVER DM you first. If someone does, it’s a fake account using my profile picture and IP. Please report and block them. Always check their credentials in their profile and if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Stay safe!

Disclaimer: Not financial advice. For educational purposes only.