How to Find Investing Ideas in Your Day

What to invest in, that is the question. You may be surprised to find that companies you interact with every day are publicly listed and, as such, could just become your next investment.

We've written before about how your daily routine can spark investing ideas. During the current disruption, this might be truer than ever. Here's what we mean.

You roll out of bed in the morning. You brush your teeth as you always have – same toothbrush, same toothpaste, every day. But what's next? Maybe you don the designer athleisure that arrived in the mail last week and get to your virtual fitness class before the first remote meeting of the day. Maybe you stay in your new versatile night-to-day/day-to-night pajamas and pad to the coffee machine to make your version of your beloved take-away latte before getting the day's first news hit from your channel of choice. Or maybe, just maybe, you don't roll anywhere at all; maybe you stay put and binge watch your current go-to show on your favourite streaming service.

Though it may not be immediately apparent, these can be great starting places for investment research. Whether supporting your career objectives, fitness goals, news fixation, online shopping or binge-watching habit, the technology you're using – or its parent company – is likely represented on a stock exchange. Ditto for attire and food brands.

As you go through your day, pay attention to what's changed and what hasn't. What products and services are you using more often? Which feature less in your everyday than they used to? What are the items you just can't do without?

Think of meals, for example. If you're WFH, the days of the sad, $15 desk salad are on pause. Are you recreating the experience in your home office via a food delivery app or maybe buying more packaged foods? Or perhaps you're playing chef in between deadlines (with the influencer du jour pulled up on-screen to guide you through every step). This is all fodder for investment thought.

While you're at it, take stock of your fridge. What's in it? More snacks or chilled beverages? Maybe fewer of both? (Why is there wilted lettuce at the back no matter what state our life is in?) And, where is everything coming from? Maybe you're doing your usual run to the nearby grocery chain. Maybe you've switched to curbside pickups from a bulk super centre. Or maybe you're trying a meal kit subscription on for size. Whatever the case, that harsh fridge lighting may very well illuminate some investing ideas that could be worth mulling over.

Review your bathroom, too. Maybe you're using more dry shampoo than regular shampoo these days (be honest). Or maybe cutting your commute means you have the time to give your locks the love they deserve. Perhaps you've even converted your loo into a salon, complete with all the hairdresser's tools. But whether you've hoarded it or not, odds are you're using a similar amount of toilet paper to before.

And how about going out – remember "out"? From the morning commute to ridesharing to the bar, how – and how often – you get from point A to point B has probably changed. Speaking of having your keister parked at point A most of the time, your answers to the questions "what do you do for fun" or "what are you up to this weekend" may have changed, too. How are you spending your spare time? Is your virtual-drinks calendar full? Have you gotten into books or podcasts? Are you putting in 5K on your bike every evening? Are you a newly minted pro puzzler? Have you taken up crocheting?

Or perhaps you're spending most of your free time trying to fill your kids' wide-open calendar. Soccer practice is at a standstill; ballet is on a break. Places like amusement parks, museums, movie theatres, skate parks – even the mall – have seen changes and are evolving. When you're not teaching algebra over dinner or gluing a googolplex of googly eyes during virtual meetings, ask yourself what's now and what's next.

Examine every aspect of your day, and then dig deeper – even if your trusty toothpaste brand is one of the few relics of your old normal, you should still conduct careful research. Learning about an industry could be a good start, as one investor did because of cheese. Then, narrow things down and consider what investment might suit your goals and portfolio.

Stock selection strategies and stock screeners can help you consider a number of criteria to determine if an investment is right for you. Fundamentals – such as the stock price compared to its earnings (P/E), dividend yield and a company's cash flow, for instance – can be useful when making an investment decision. Technical analysis, which takes into account a stock's past price movements, market activity, prices and volume, can also be helpful. Making comparisons with similar stocks and reading research reports can be good, too, to offer an extra confidence boost.

An interesting exercise can be running a detailed quote on a company you interact with in your everyday life. Look back over a longer-term horizon – maybe since you started using that product – to see how you would have fared had you invested at that time. The result may surprise you!

Remember, there are risks and benefits associated with any investment. It's a good idea to weigh both the risks and benefits when determining if any type of investment is right for you.