learning and saving best ways to invest in your future

Learning and saving best ways to invest in your future

I've accumulated a nice little sum in my savings account over the past year, and I've decided the best way that I can serve my future is to invest it. I want to do a good job with my hard-earned moola, so I decided to do some research. I have now been researching for several months, and who knows how many investment opportunities have passed me by. I wonder just how many people out there are just like me, investment novices who simply want to make the right choices but get caught up in all the terminology, number games and money-grubbers out there. It gets confusing, but I've decided that the only thing that will help me now is to bite the bullet. I am going to invest my money within the next two weeks. Then another thought came to mind. I am going to keep a kind of journal, tracking the steps I take, in hopes that it might clear away some of the confusion for anyone else out there. So here are the basics I have discovered so far. They are instrumental, so I would definitely advise that anyone looking to invest get these areas under control before you begin.

Step One: Start saving.

We've talked about this before. I am lucky; I received a very generous Christmas gift last year that I stuck into a savings account at my local bank. Between the interest I have earned from that plus the automatic savings plan I enrolled in, it has been less than a year, and I have saved about $1000 for investment, which puts me far from the high-rollers table, but will get me in the door. I would also suggest trimming any hefty debt you might have before you seriously think about investing. I also took this past year to put in enough overtime that I cut my total credit card debt down to a manageable amount. I believe this is essential, because no matter how much you save, if you're just spending all that money anyway using your credit cards, you are setting yourself up for disaster. For advice on how to slice your debt, see the Credit Help section.

Step Two: Determine your desires and timeline.

I wish I was investing in the hopes of hitting jackpot and never having to work again, but my intentions are not nearly as glamorous. I will be starting graduate school next year, and by the time I complete my PhD, I will have some pretty hefty loans to pay off, I'm sure. So that's where I want this money to go. I am approximating a good $10,000 by the time it's all over, probably over the course of four to five years. According to the investing consultants at The Motley Fool, the mutual funds I was so interested in might not make enough in that time to pay off the loans in full. In investment terms, looking for turnover in less than five years is rather fast, and good old-fashioned stocks are much more likely to turn the profit you'll need. However, I'm not necessarily looking to pay off the entire loan total at that point in time, just take care of a good chunk of it. Plus, I'm not a very exciting person, so I decided to play it safe and stick with the mutual funds.

Step Three: Talk to people.

My father invests regularly, and he has had good luck with both stocks and mutual funds. But the accounts he trades in are far beyond my means. I needed to find options that would work for my budget (I set a goal of saving $1000 to invest, plus an extra $100 for any fees or charges I might encounter.). So I started looking through his investment magazines. I found several mutual funds that I could invest in for that amount, including a few with strong reputations for encouraging social equity and fair labor practices. The world of mutual funds was looking more and more enticing each day.

So that brings us up to the present day. I am now looking into a couple funds and a couple brokers, trying to decide which are best for me. I hope to keep you all updated on my progress, in hopes that it will correspond with progress of your own. This should be an exciting experience, and let's just keep our fingers crossed that my efforts will be worth it in the end!

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	Learning to Save Tip I wonder just how many people out there are just like me, investment novices who simply want to make the right choices but get caught up in all the terminology, number games and money-grubbers out there.