Do you have any investments? Have you been thinking about investing for the first time? If you have been thinking about it then you’re on the right track. Past history has shown that people that make investments over their lifetime will have a much more relaxing retirement than people that don’t. Even if you make a lot of money you still need to invest some of that money now so you can have it to use later in life.
Maybe you haven’t started investing because you don’t have enough money? Maybe it’s because you’re too young to invest? Both completely ludicrous reasons. You’re never too young to start investing. Actually, the younger you start the better off you’ll be. The sooner you start the easier it will be for you to save. Why? With one word it’s because of “compounding”.
If investing is so important for your future why don’t more people start early? It could be because they’re scared to invest and lose their money. It could be because they think they need more to invest. Or it could be that they just don’t understand to invest. Whatever the reason may be you need to get that all out of your head and figure out how to start investing right now. Today.
How do you get started investing?
This might sound stupid, but you just need to start. One of the key things to investing is patience. It’s going to take time for your nest egg to grow, but if you keep at it you’ll have a nice amount saved up. But where do you start?
If you work, then you need to invest into your 401K, and be sure to at least invest enough so that you get the full match from your employer. That “matched” money is basically free money you’re getting from your employer for doing nothing other than investing your money.
If you don’t have a plan from your employer then you need to look into opening an IRA account where you can invest into. If all this stuff seems foreign to you then ask someone with more experience than you that you trust about it. If they’re not telling you about IRAs or Roth IRAs then you should find someone else that knows what those things are.
These days you can find many online brokerage firms that will help you get started for free with free help and advice. If you would rather have some personal one on one advice then go for it. Pay for it if you need to, but figure it out and start investing now. Remember, the sooner you start the better it will be for you.
What do I have to invest in?
If this is your first time investing then you’ll want to keep it simple. You could pick and choose a few individual stocks from different sectors and do well, but if you want to keep it nice and easy then you can just invest into some mutual funds. If you invest into a mutual fund then you’re basically pooling your money with other investors to buy into a mix of investments, stocks, bonds etc. Start out with a more conservative large cap growth mutual fund and go from there.
Really, any conservative investment would be better than no investment at all. Then all you have to do is stay the course and keep investing over time. You’ll need to exercise your patience when other people are telling you to get out of the market or when they’re telling you to go all in. If you can systematically plug into your investments then over time you’re going to be ahead of them. You could call it boring, but that’s really all there is to it. Stay the course, keep at it, and then one day when you’re old you’ll be really glad you did.