Every year, I talk to countless people in the same position: they’re sitting on tens (sometimes hundreds) of thousands of dollars that they know “should” be invested.

They tell themselves “at least it’s in a high-interest savings account”, they explore their options (i.e. meet with financial advisers, talk to an accountant), and sometimes they even dabble (i.e. buy a few ETFs, pop some money into a term deposit, buy a little gold) – but months turn into years and nothing much changes: the majority of that cash continues to sit in a savings account.

Don’t worry – I’ve been there. Today, in my last article for the year, I want to help get you off the fence and onto the path of taking your investing journey seriously.

Here is what helped me – and many of the nervous investors I’ve worked with over the years – get over the avoidance and fear, and start growing an investment portfolio with confidence.

Reduce overwhelm by starting small

When you aren’t a confident investor yet, having tens of thousands of dollars doesn’t come with the elation some might imagine. For many, it comes with stress. You’re caught between the anxiety that you “should” be doing something with it, and the fear of making the wrong move.

So, take the pressure off. Give yourself permission to learn how to invest $5000 with confidence first, before you jump into a $50,000 or $500,000 investment.

The goal isn’t just to get invested – it’s to stay invested, and that depends on how confident you feel in your investment strategy.

Sure, you can tell yourself you just need to “bite the bullet” and force yourself to invest in something you aren’t sure about. That will give you the psychological relief of ticking that task off your to-do list, so you don’t have cash “sitting around doing nothing”. But the anxiety of not taking action will be replaced with the anxiety of questioning if you made the right move.

This increases your risk of losing money long-term because you won’t have the stomach to stay the course. You’ll sell when the market drops, you’ll second-guess your decision when you read news headlines, you’ll change course when your friend tells you about their wins.

The goal isn’t just to get invested – it’s to stay invested. Your staying power depends on how confident you feel in your investment strategy. So, you’re better off taking the time to learn how to invest with confidence than jumping into something quickly and “hoping” it’s a good decision.

Start attaching safety to assets, not money

The reason you’re sitting on large lump sums of cash despite “knowing” you should invest is simple – it feels safer. Sure, in theory, you know that “investing” is a good idea. But it also looks like there’s a lot of risk involved – and on the whole, given your current level of investing skills and confidence, it feels safer to do nothing and keep your money in cash.

As long as you see investing as risky and cash as safe, you’re going to have a hard time making yourself invest serious money because your brain will keep doing exactly what it’s designed to do – it’ll try to keep you safe, and protect you from perceived harm.

If you want to build serious wealth – i.e. you want tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars in investments – you need to change your mindset. Serious investors don’t see money as safe and assets as risky. It’s the other way around. They see assets as safer than cash.

Why? Because money was never designed to be stored. It was designed as a medium of exchange – i.e. you’re supposed to exchange it for something. However, assets are a store of value. The analogy I like to use is – money is like apples, and assets are like apple trees.

Would you want to save 500 apples knowing they’ll rot (depreciate)? Or would you want to trade them in for apple trees, which you know will grow (appreciate) and eventually produce more apples?

What often keeps people sitting on cash is the fear of making the wrong move. But not investing is the “wrong” move. So, you might as well go on the journey of learning to invest (even if you make a few mistakes along the way) – because you’re already losing money to inflation.

Will it be scary? Will it challenge you? Yes. But will you also feel proud of who you’ve become, the confidence you’ve developed, the fear you overcame, and the financial life you’ve created? Also, yes. In fact, that’s the real prize – one you’ll value more than the assets themselves.

Thank you for reading. I’ve loved hearing from readers in comments and emails. I’ll still be writing via my social media and newsletter, if you’d like to stay connected. Otherwise, enjoy the holiday period, and I’ll see you back here in 2026.

Paridhi Jain is founder of SkilledSmart, which helps adults learn to manage, save and invest money through financial education courses and classes.

• Advice given in this article is general in nature and not intended to influence readers’ decisions about investing or financial products. They should always seek their own professional advice that takes into account their own personal circumstances before making any financial decisions.

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