Senior Editor Rebecca Moretti explores hot topics at the intersection of finance and pop culture in our new column, “Out of the Chat.”

In seventh grade, I did a class presentation on why you shouldn’t invest in the stock market.

I’m not sure why I chose that topic (I had probably seen my father watching Jim Cramer on CNBC and wanted to be a contrarian,) but I remember thinking my teacher looked impressed. In retrospect, he was probably just amused — I had no real understanding of the market at age 12, but I probably thought it made me sound smart.

I wish I had kept my PowerPoint presentation. Eighteen years later, I can’t remember what I argued, but I could not agree less with my 12-year-old self.

Investing has become a big part of my life (I’ve spent the past five plus years working as a markets-focused writer and editor), and from a financial perspective, I’m so glad I started at 21.

I didn't know nearly as much about investing back then, but I've realized that I didn't really need to — not to get started, at least. A little research and a fairly conservative approach was all I needed to get the ball rolling.

Still, I hesitated at first. (FWIW, research shows that women are more risk-averse with their money than men, but when they do invest, they tend to outperform men by a small margin.)

When I worked part-time jobs in high-school, I didn’t consider doing anything else with my money other than spending it. That changed when I got my first steady paycheck.

I was lucky enough that my monthly pay exceeded my expenses, but that raised a big question: What do I do with the leftover money? And more importantly, what do I do that’ll help me get ahead?

Risk-averse as I was, I considered keeping it in my checking account, but I knew I’d earn almost no interest. One of my friends had mentioned a high-yield savings account she used, so I opened one of those and started building a savings stash. Once I had a solid financial cushion, where my money was growing on its own (compound interest for the win), I started thinking about investing.

I knew that millions of “real adults” did it with the goal of growing their wealth, so it seemed like a smart thing to do. But I felt I didn’t know enough. That I wasn’t “ready.”

You may have heard the stat that men apply for a job when they meet only 60% of the qualifications, but women don’t apply unless they meet 100% of them. I don’t know if that’s still true today, but that was my mindset toward investing. I felt like I had to know everything before I started, and as a result, I did a lot of research. Probably way more than I needed to. (I even made a Google Doc study-guide to compile my notes… yeah).

I started by looking up basic investment terms and key principles on sites like Investopedia and bank blogs, and copy-pasted info into my doc. As I got comfortable with the basics, I started exploring investment strategies. I noticed that a lot of articles talked about investing for the long term and diversifying, and that’s exactly what I did.

I opened my first brokerage account, invested in an S&P 500 index fund, and hoped for the best. As my confidence grew, I added to my investments and mixed up my portfolio with different types of funds and eventually, some individual stocks.

I don’t regret my self-taught investment class, because it helped me gain confidence and land a job in the industry — plus, it was something I was genuinely excited by. But I learned more by doing than preparing.

If you’re like I was — unsure of whether you’re ready to start investing — know that you don’t need to be an expert or a CNBC talking head. And with the rise of no-fee trading and mobile brokerage apps, investing is so much more accessible than it was a decade ago.

If doing months of research and making a study guide gives you the confidence you need to start, go ahead. Just don’t let fear of the unknown set you back.

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