If you want to reach your financial goals, investing is one of the best ways to do that. If you haven’t invested yet, you might be worried about getting started.
Most people are worried about investing because they assume that it’s all about complex terms or buying and selling on the stock market. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Even if you aren’t a financial expert, there are plenty of investments that you can make that you don’t have to spend hours managing. In fact, there are investments that you can make and then sit back and watch your money grow.
Robo-Advisors
One of the most popular ways for new investors to get started is to utilize robo-advisors. Thanks to the Internet, investing has never been easier. There are sites like Betterment and swell that have made investing as simple as a few mouse clicks.
With Betterment, all that you have to do is create an account, answer a few questions about your finances, outline your financial goals, and then start contributing to your account. After that, the Betterment robo-advisors will manage all of your investing for you. They will allocate your resources based on your risk assessment and financial goals.
Robo-advisors are becoming one of the easiest ways to invest, both for new investors or for seasoned pros. Betterment is only one of the dozens of robo-advisors on the market.
Annuities
Annuities are an excellent investment option for anyone that wants to have a guaranteed income in retirement. The concept of annuities is simple. You invest, and then you decide when you want to get payments. You can get payments from the annuity every month, every quarter, or every year.
You can decide how long that you want to receive payments. You can get them for the rest of your life, or you can set a number of years that you want to get the paychecks. There are two types of annuities, a fixed annuity or a variable annuity. Fixed annuities are going to get you a guaranteed amount of money, while a variable annuity the amount of money that you earn is going to be determined by the investments of the annuity.
401K
If your employer has a 401K program, and you aren’t taking advantage of it, then you’re making the worst possible mistake for your investment portfolio and your retirement dream. The 401K itself is not an investment, it’s simply an account that works as a vehicle for the investments inside of it.
Most companies have a match program with their 401k, and they will match your contributions up to a limit. Every company is different, but most companies will at least match your contributions up to around 2% of your salary. That’s like getting free investing money.
One of the best benefits of your 401K is that your contributions can be made automatic. Your employer can take the money out of your paycheck every month, and the investments will be made for you. 401K is the best set it and forget it investments out there.
Micro Investing
A new wave of investing has changed the way that new investors manage their money. Micro-investing is a straightforward idea, and as you can guess from the name, let’s you invest some of that extra money that you have under your car seats.
There are dozens and dozens of different apps that you can download and sync to your bank accounts. All of them work similarly. They will take a small amount out of your bank account (usually a couple of dollars) every month and then invest that money into a variety of different avenues. Everything from domestic stocks to foreign investments.
One of the most popular micro investing apps is Acorns. Acorns will invest a small amount of money by “rounding-up” every purchase that you make to the nearest dollar and investing that spare change. You can also make additional investments to give your portfolio a boost. If you’re looking for a quick and easy way to kick-start your portfolio without having to spend hours and hours researching, micro investing is one of the best ways to do that.
Set it and Forget It
Investing your money doesn’t have to be a part-time job. There are plenty of ways that you can invest your money without having to understand all of the confusing terms and jargon. Investing your money is the best way to ensure that you get to live those retirement dreams.
