One of the major misconceptions about investing is that you need to be rich to do it.
While this was possibly the case back in the day, it’s no longer something that should stop you from investing. The barrier to entry is much lower than it’s ever been. There are so many companies making it more accessible to invest as an average person. It doesn’t matter how much money you have anymore. You can find investment opportunities that make sense.
With so many different investment opportunities, there’s no excuse to sit on the sidelines. This is only a good thing because investing can do wonders for helping you grow your net worth.
Why Investing Is So Important
You’ve likely heard about older folks complaining about how high the cost of things has become. Things like gas and even a burger were significantly less back in the day than it is now. Why is that the case? This is because of inflation. The endless printing of money has led to money being worth significantly less.
When you don’t invest, you lose money every year purely because of inflation. How to combat this? You can combat it by investing. You need to invest your money if you want it to outpace inflation. This is especially true when inflation rates are skyrocketing as they are now. That way, your money doesn’t lose value because of inflation.
When you invest, you allow your money to work for you. Compounding is a very powerful thing. The power of compounding can help you maximize your wealth with time. Compounding your earnings means that you are reinvesting with the returns you’ve made. Thus, the earlier you start, the better your compounding rates can get. With investing, it’s always better to get started sooner.
Never invested before? If not, here are some of the top things to consider.
If you are brand new to investing, you do want to do some due diligence before jumping in head first.
1. Goals and Timeline
One of the major things that you need to figure out is your investment timeline. You want to ensure that you have aligned proper and realistic goals based on your investment horizon. How long are you planning on investing? If you are looking to invest for the long term, you are likely willing to take more risks than someone that is looking for short-term returns. If you need the money you will be investing any time soon, it’s best to keep it out of volatile investments as you are more likely to lose money.
2. Risk Tolerance
Another thing that you need to factor into your decisions is your risk tolerance. How much are you willing to lose? Every investment comes with risk. Depending on the investment vehicle, some may be more than others. As for the stock market, there can be periods of high volatility. The stock market can move up and down daily. Thus, you want to ensure that you are investing according to your risk tolerance. You want to know how comfortable you are with losing money.
One of the best things you can do to mitigate a lot of the volatility is by diversifying your investments. You want to try to spread your investments out. Putting all of your eggs in the same basket is one of the worst things you can do. While it can pay off if you hit the right investment at the right time, it’s more likely to lose you money. By effectively spreading out your investments to more asset classes and industries, you can minimize risk. This is why you want to try to stick to mutual funds or exchange-traded funds when you are just getting started. This will allow you to buy into baskets of securities rather than having to go individual stock picking.
Best Investments For Beginners
The fact is, investing is different for everyone. There’s never going to be the best investment opportunity for anyone. That being said, some investments are inherently better than others for certain people. A lot of the factors that will dictate these things are whether or not you have a high-risk tolerance and what your goals are. Before going ahead and jumping into cryptocurrency investments, you are likely going to want to opt for an employer-sponsored retirement plan.
Below, you will find six different investment types that are good for beginners as identified by NerdWallet.
1. 401(k)
2. Robo advisor
3. Index Funds
4. Target-date mutual funds
5. Exchange-traded funds
6. Investment apps
Employer retirement plan or 401(k)
If you do have a retirement plan at work, you are likely going to want to max this out before you head elsewhere on your investment journey. It’s always a good idea to allocate your money to the employer-sponsored 401(k) before branching out because a lot of companies will match your contributions. This is free money for you.
It doesn’t matter how much you get started with. While more is always better, you can start with as little as 1 percent of your paycheck. It’s a good idea to try to aim for as much as your employer will match since it’s free money for you. For instance, if they offer 50% of the first 6% of the salary you put in, you would want to contribute at least 6% of your salary every year. However, you can always work your way up if you aren’t there yet.
When you do decide to put your money into the 401(k), you will have the money go straight from your paycheck into the account without touching it or having access to it. The majority of the contributions you may in this regard will be pretax. Some of the funds nowadays will place your funds into a target-date fund. Here is how to get started with investing in your 401(k).
To sign up for your 401(k) or to get more details about your employer’s retirement plan, you can contact Human Resources at your company.…