This is going to sound silly, but I don't know where to start when it comes to investing. I need to start putting money aside, and I would like that money to grow over a period of time. I don't understand how to buy shares, make trades, or sell stocks. (I might have got all of that lingo wrong.) I wanted to ask real people what they are doing, so I thought I'd post this on HubPages. I know that if I go to my bank or hire someone, I will get a sales pitch. My family has suggested that aside from starting an IRA, I should invest in something. Where should I start? And, how can I spot a good investment?
I would suggest going to a mainstream place like fidelity and having a chat about how to invest without taking to much risk. They have some nice diversified options that will grow your money a modest amount without to much risk of losing the principle. A starting consultation is usually free.
Learn what type of investor you are too. Can you handle volatile stocks which may swing up and down by 30% or more in 3 to 6 months. I just got creamed by selling one too quickly and losing out on $8K due to fear. ** cough ** Netflix ** cough)
So many people want to put money away and get some sort of decent return. As a financial advisor, I would not give you any sort of sales pitch and I highly doubt any bank advisor would do that either. To be honest, advisors are paid commissions based on the dollar amount they invest for someone. If someone walks in with 350K and wondering what they should so with it, of course they will try to sell them the best product for them and in turn make a decent commission.
If someone walks in just trying to figure out how to start saving money, I would tell them to simply create an account, it could be an IRA or a basic savings account and just start putting money in it on a consistant basis. Yo have to start somewhere.
Let's look at the facts. Let's say you had $1,000 to start and you earned a 5% return, you will have made $50 for that year. Even though 5% is unheard of in a savings account, it gives you an idea of what type of "return" you are looking at.
When you are just starting out, your main focus should be making a consistant effort to put money aside. Pick an amount that you are comfortable with every month and stick to it. If your job has a 401K. that's the first place I would start. Pick an amount that you can put into savings as a backup, and an amount that you will NEVER touch until retirement.
When raises come around or debt gets paid off, increase your contributions and get used to setting aside those funds. Before you know it, you will have the beginnings of a nice little nest egg for yourself. At that point you can talk about risk tolerance and volitility because it will be YOUR hard earned money, and your decision what to do with it. That's where a good advisor can come in to the mix and be able to point you in the right direction.
by alexd181 14 years ago
I'm looking for some advice from anyone who has done investing or personal finance planning before. If you had a 5-figure sum of money and wanted to grow that amount into more what would be the best way to utilize it? Investments seem very risky, especially for someone who knows little about the...
by Christopher Wanamaker 11 years ago
What is the best way to invest money if you are just starting out?
by Daddy Paul 13 years ago
What would make a good investment hub? I am running out of ideas.
by saifhayel 11 years ago
Where to invest very small amount of money (10$ - 30$) online, and make more money from it?Ok, say i have 25$ in my paypal account, is there any place i can invest that kind money in something good?
by ngureco 13 years ago
When Should I Start Planning For Retirement And How Much Money Do I Need For Retirement?
by Cody 6 years ago
If you were 18, starting your senior year of high school, and were serious about this, how would you go about doing it? Would it be possible to you? What type of business would you start?
Copyright © 2024 The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers on this website. HubPages® is a registered trademark of The Arena Platform, Inc. Other product and company names shown may be trademarks of their respective owners. The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers to this website may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website.
Copyright © 2024 Maven Media Brands, LLC and respective owners.
As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.
For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy
Show DetailsNecessary | |
---|---|
HubPages Device ID | This is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons. |
Login | This is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service. |
Google Recaptcha | This is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy) |
Akismet | This is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Google Analytics | This is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Traffic Pixel | This is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized. |
Amazon Web Services | This is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy) |
Cloudflare | This is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Hosted Libraries | Javascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy) |
Features | |
---|---|
Google Custom Search | This is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Maps | Some articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Charts | This is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy) |
Google AdSense Host API | This service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Google YouTube | Some articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Vimeo | Some articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Paypal | This is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Login | You can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Maven | This supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy) |
Marketing | |
---|---|
Google AdSense | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Google DoubleClick | Google provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Index Exchange | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Sovrn | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Ads | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Unified Ad Marketplace | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
AppNexus | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Openx | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Rubicon Project | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
TripleLift | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Say Media | We partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy) |
Remarketing Pixels | We may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites. |
Conversion Tracking Pixels | We may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service. |
Statistics | |
---|---|
Author Google Analytics | This is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy) |
Comscore | ComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Tracking Pixel | Some articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy) |
Clicksco | This is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy) |