How to Start Investing Now!

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How to Start Investing Now!

Many people never start investing because they just don’t know how.  It’s the not knowing that scares people in to submission.  But it doesn’t have to be scary, and overcoming this fear can change your life.

There is tons of information out there about investing, and it can seem daunting at first.  But once you know the basics, you can jump right in head first!  You can begin investing for your future right now, just start slow and take baby steps.

…But first, pump the brakes!

You need to be investing for your future.  That is a fact. But you need to make sure your ducks are lined up before you get started.   So let’s first take a quick look at where you stand today.

Do you have mountains of credit card debt?  Are the interest rates over 10%?  If they are we need to take a step back and get you out of that situation.  Remember the idea here is get your money growing for you.  So, if you are going to invest $100 per month and hope for the historical average of 10% return, but you have $30,000 in credit card debt at 27% interest, you are going to get nowhere fast.

So here are a few things you need to have done before you get started:

• You are maxing out your 401k, if your employer offers one (come on guys, it’s free money!)

• You have your credit card debt down to a manageable level

• You have some money set aside in case of an emergency (preferably 3-6 months)

If you meet these criteria, then you can keep skipping down the yellow brick road!  Otherwise, get focused and knock these things out, you’ll be happy that you did!

…Check under the couch!

Ok, so now we know we are in good shape, we need to scrape some money together to invest.  You don’t have to have much! When I got started, I had $500 bucks.  That’s all it takes.  You could theoretically start with less but it may be a better idea to save up to that amount or more in a higher interest savings account.

Time to do some planning…

Before you start buying shares of Google, you need to do some planning.  What is this for?  Are you investing to pay for college?  Is it for retirement?  How much time do you have before you need it?

You need to be very specific as far as what you are trying to accomplish here.  You don’t want to be buying stocks all willy nilly. Having a good indication of what you are trying to accomplish will help you determine how you need to get there.   So take the time, it’s very important to your success.

Well where do I put it?

There is one main thing you have to remember here.  Diversification is king. Spread it around a little bit.  Don’t put all your Dow Jones eggs in one basket so to speak.

You want to make sure if you lose some money in one area you have the potential to balance out with an increase in another area.   So if you are jumping in to stocks and mutual funds, make sure you buy some bonds too, and vice versa.  A lot of this will be determined by what your plan is for the money.

The longer time frame you have before you need the money, the riskier you can play because you have the time to make up any potential losses.  Make sure you are investing in accordance with your risk profile.

My recommendation…

Buy index funds.  That seems pretty simple.  Index funds are a mutual fund of sorts that follows the stock indexes.  So if you want the same return as the Dow Jones, you buy the Dow Jones index fund and it will be representative of the entire basket of companies that are traded there.

This takes the guess work out of investing. This goes back to what I said about diversification.  When you get in to a fund, you are buying a basket of stocks.  You have built in diversification right there.

This is a good way to get started in investing.  It gives you some returns, with a little bit less risk, and while you have the free time you can be doing more research on investing.

Research, Research, Research…

This article is a very high level look at investing.  If you really want to get in to investing wisely, you need to do your research.  There is a ton of information out there that can help you make good choices and better plans.  You have to be careful out there because it really isn’t a game.  You can lose all of your money. I’ve seen it happen.  So start with the basics and study hard on the rest and you can be very successful in  investing.

You can send your kids to college…and get that house on the beach you always wanted to retire in.  Just remember, study now…and build sand castles later…

Do you have any advice you can add to this?  Have any questions I can help you with?  Jump right in to the conversation in the comments section!

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