When Should I Start Investing?
If you’re like most other people in the world, you’ve probably heard about investing. You may have already considered getting your money to start working for you. However, some people get to that point. They don’t take any action because they think you need to have a ton of money to start investing.
This is not the case. I’ll show you how anyone can start investing TODAY in this article!
Getting Started
This can be the most challenging part for many people, myself included. When I started working in high school, investing wasn’t a thought in my brain. I was just saving money for college and spending the rest.
After I graduated and started on my way through college, I made about $10,000/month each Summer at my sales job, which is a lot when you’re an 18–20-year-old kid. I could’ve started putting my money to work back then, but that wasn’t the case. It ended up being more college money and a LOT more play money.
After a few years of learning about investing and wealth-building, I look back at my younger decisions with disappointment. I could have set myself way ahead in those few years. I wouldn’t have even needed to invest a ton of money starting that young to benefit from compound interest’s effects. Nevertheless, my prior ignorance of the world of investing is not hurting me much now.
You can start investing wherever you are in your financial journey with as little as $5. Some brokerage accounts, which we’ll discuss later in the article, will even let you set up an account for free and GIVE you free stocks! I 100% could’ve started back in college with this knowledge in mind!
What Should You Invest In?
There are many different investment vehicles for you to put your money in. You can go with real estate, stocks, bonds, and many more. The real question is, what is the easiest way for you to start as a beginner?
First, you must consider your financial goals and the timeline for which you’d like to achieve them. Once you have your goals set, it’s much easier to create a plan to get you there.
You may even want to speak with a financial advisor to have them help you make some plans to achieve your goals. Financial advisors can be helpful but certainly aren’t a necessity.
With your goals and planning all done. Now it’s time to put your money to work. The rest of this article will be focused on things you can start doing today to get your investment train rolling quickly. That way you can begin making returns on your money!
401(k)/Employer Retirement Plans
If you have a job, you likely have a 401(k) or some retirement plan, and this is the first place you can start! Especially if your employer matches your contributions because that’s essentially free money for you!
Maxing out your contributions will be the easiest way to start putting away more money for yourself with the least amount of learning you’d have to do.
Index Funds & Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs)
Index funds are super easy to start investing in. They track a market index, a group of stocks, so you don’t have to put all the time into learning about and researching individual stocks.
It’s easier to just put your money into an index fund that follows the S&P 500 rather than trying to invest in all 500 stocks that the S&P 500 tracks.
Exchange-traded funds are mostly the same as index funds in that they track a market index to allow the investor to take a very passive approach. Some ETFs track the S&P 500, the Nasdaq, and the Dow-Jones Index, among others.
The main difference between index funds and ETFs is that ETFs are traded like individual stocks throughout the day and bought at a share price. In contrast, index funds are only traded at a set price given at the end of the day.
Investment Apps
Investing apps are great ways to get started as a beginner. Many different apps allow you to get started quickly and easily. Some even give you bonuses for opening accounts with them.
Webull
Webull is a great app to get started with, especially if you’ve already done some research on the stock market. They have no minimum deposits and don’t charge any commissions. Webull also provides you with the ability to trade stocks, options, ETFs, and cryptocurrency.
Even a charting tool on the app allows you to get in-depth with your technical analysis of your potential investments. They give you an “Analyst Rating” on stocks that tells you what the professionals are doing with the stock you’re looking at.
The coolest thing about Webull is that you can get five free stocks for signing up and making your first deposit. You can sign up here to get started and receive your free stocks!
Acorns
Acorns is another great beginner investing app. You don’t have to know anything about stocks to use it either. You invest with them by choosing your risk tolerance (if you want to trade conservatively or aggressively), then they do all the work to grow your investments for you!
Acorns has a feature called Round-Ups, where they link to your debit card and automatically round up your purchases to the nearest dollar and invest the difference for you. Say you buy some fries at a restaurant for $2.50; Acorns will invest 50 cents for you to round the expense up to $3! That way, you’re investing without putting in any extra effort.
When you sign up with Acorns, they give you $5 for free just for creating an account! You can claim your $5 today and start your investing journey with them today!
There are many other investing apps that you can start with as a beginner, but these are two of the best ones I’d recommend for beginners, as I’ve used them before and continue to use them!
The Best Time to Start
No matter how old you are or how much money you have, the best time to start investing your money is now! Begin building up a nest egg for your future. Allow your money to start working for you now, so you don’t have to work for it for the rest of your life!
The simple decision to act now with investing can make the most significant difference when you retire. Make the best of your available opportunities. Do everything you can to ensure the best future possible!
Originally published at http://investmentgamers.com on July 27, 2022.
