Investing for Beginners: Ideas to Get Started

I’ve been in the personal finance space for years but still, investing in the stock market wasn’t something that I jumped at. Instead, I hesitated for far too long.

I wasn’t sure where to start, what to invest in, or even how to go about it. Now that all seems so silly.

The truth is, it is ridiculously easy to get started, you don’t need to be an “expert”, and you can start investing with as little as ten dollars!

Here are some investing for beginners ideas to get you started. (Even if you have no clue what you’re doing!)

Choose a “Robo-Advisor”

I see a lot of headlines in news stories about the pros and cons of choosing a robo advisor over an in-real-life financial advisor. But the truth is, it doesn’t matter which one you pick. Anything is better than nothing!

Plus, if you don’t have a lot of money to start with, don’t want to pay large fees to financial advisors, and haven’t a clue what you’re doing, going with an online platform can be really great.

I personally love Betterment as my “robo-advisor.” Getting started is simple, there are no minimum contributions, and you can have a retirement or personal investing account up and running in minutes.

Here’s how it works:

• Create an account with Betterment
• Fill In Your Personal Info
• Choose Between a Traditional IRA, Roth IRA, or other type of general savings account
• Take a risk assessment
• Deposit some money (you choose the amount)
• Betterment will invest your money into a diversified portfolio of index funds based on the results of your risk assessment (which you can manually change, by the way)

It’s seriously as simple as that.

I started buying individual stocks at the beginning of 2014 and have took a pretty substantial loss based on my choices. My Betterment account, also started in 2014, has a positive return and is crushing my picks.

Going forward I’m going to keep my retirement accounts with a robo-advisor and let them choose the investments for me.

Start Small

Investing is not an all or nothing type of thing. If you’re just getting started you have the option to take it slow.

You could buy one individual stock just to get your feet wet or explore different types of small investment ideas. Do what you need to until you feel comfortable.

The last thing you want to do is invest every single dollar you have in something you know nothing about!

Realize That Investing Goes Beyond the Stock Market

Let’s move beyond the idea that investing means you have to buy into stocks. That’s not true. There are plenty of self-made multi-millionaires who have never put a dime in the stock market.

While I do have some money deposited into my IRA each month the stock market isn’t really my thing. I’d instead to prefer to have a little more control over my investments. I can keep my control by investing in real estate, my business, or myself.

I personally want to be diversified which is why I have money put into an investment account each month but my next goal is to invest in real estate.

All the investment experts tell you to “Invest in What You Know” So keep in mind, that there are many things you can invest in without your money ever touching the stock market.

Take the Confusion Out of Investing

Don’t get tripped up on investing lingo or fancy day trading strategies – you don’t need either to get started investing. Instead keep it simple, start small, and explore investing options that are best suited to your preferences.