Novice investor

Understanding the Investment Risk Ladder
Here are the major asset classes, in ascending order of risk, on the investment risk ladder.

Open a brokerage account. Go to the company’s website. Find the “Open an Account” link. Follow the instructions for opening an account. You will need to provide key information, such as your name, address, e-mail address and social security information. The websites make it easy to open an account because it’s in their best interest to do so.

A comprehensive guide to investing in stocks for beginners
Looking to maximize your money and beat the cost of inflation? You want to invest in the stock market to get higher returns than your average savings account. But learning how to invest in stocks can be daunting for someone just getting started.

When you invest in stocks, you're purchasing a share of a company. They're basically a slice of ownership in a company that can yield returns if it's successful. There are various ways to invest and leverage your money. But there's a lot to know before you get started investing in stocks.

Create a blog or YouTube channel
Are you an expert on travel to Thailand? A maven of Minecraft? A sultan of swing dancing? Take your passion for a subject and turn it into a blog or a YouTube channel, using ads or sponsors to generate your income. Find a popular subject, even a small niche, and become an expert on it. At first you’ll have to build out a suite of content and draw an audience, but it can create a steady income stream over time, as you become known for your engaging content.

Opportunity: You can leverage a free (or very low cost) platform, then use your great content to build a following. The more unique your voice or area of interest, the better for you to become “the” person to follow. Then draw sponsors to you.

Risk: You’ll have to build out content at the start and then create ongoing content, which can take time. And you’ll need to be really passionate about the product, since that can help you maintain the motivation to continue, especially at the start as your followers are still finding you.

The real downside here is that you can outlay a bunch of your time and resources, with little to show for it, if there’s limited interest in your subject or niche. Your area of expertise may be too niche to really draw a profitable audience, but you won’t be sure of that until you experiment.

Make an investing plan and stick to it

One of the biggest reasons many investors have low returns is because they sell at the wrong time. They often base decisions on recent performance. They look at what has been doing well or not so well recently. Many investors tend to buy things that have appreciated in value and sell things that have declined in value.

Rather than do this, you should create a plan you will think will help you reach your goals over the time period you have to invest. Don't stop investing because of bad performance. Stick to your plan without buying or selling based on your opinion of what will happen in the near future.

If you're ready to put all these beginners investing tips to good use, find an investment platform. If you're wondering which one to choose, we can help with that.

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High Yield Savings Accounts
MONEY NEEDED TO START $1
Words like “investing,” “stock markets,” and “index fund” scare off a lot of would-be investors who think they’d need a finance degree to make good investments.

In reality, saving money in a high yield savings account is a form of investing, and you’ll have a hard time finding an easier way to invest.

Saving and investing are like siblings. You can’t really do one without the other. You can start slow—just save any loose change left over from the coffee you buy or the cost of parking. If you can put in, say, $5 a week, that can turn into $260 a year.

After 10 years—at 1% interest—you’d have $2,747. About $147 of that would be from compound interest. It’s not a lot of money, but you get the idea: Letting money grow slowly and steadily is a form of investing.

Today’s best online high yield savings accounts earn 0.8% to 1.4% interest, which is a lot higher than the rate you’d get in your neighborhood’s brick-and-mortar bank account. If you do nothing else on this list, open up a high yield savings account today.

FDIC insurance provides the closest thing to a risk-free investment you’ll ever find—if you have $250,000 or less in your bank account or money market account.