What to Invest in When You’re Young
You’ve probably heard many people tell you to “invest while you’re young.” Of course, they aren’t wrong. Investing when you’re young is one of the smartest decisions you can make…but, the harder part is knowing what to invest your money in. My goal is to make this concise and give you the information you need quickly and easily. I will provide you with two safe, smart, and profitable investment options so you can retire with more money in your bank account.
First, I recommend downloading Acorns on your phone, computer, or any kind of tablet you use. Acorns is an investment app that allows you to put as much or as little money in as you would like into your account. The nice part about Acorns is that you don’t have to know anything about stocks or bonds to grow your money. You simply put some money in, and they will invest it for you. There are two features that are fantastic on this app: 1) you can connect your credit card and invest “spare change” each time you purchase something with your card. Let’s say you buy a coffee for $3.60; Acorns will round up and invest the extra $0.40 for you. 2) You can set a recurring investment for once a week on any day you choose. I have mine set to invest $20 from my bank account every Monday.
When you download Acorns, you get to choose your risk-level (because all investing does include some risk). There are 5 levels of risk to choose from; if you are more risk-tolerant, you might choose “aggressive” or “moderately aggressive.” If you don’t know much about stocks and just want to be safe, I advise you to choose “conservative” or “moderately conservative.” If you choose the latter, this means that Acorns will invest your money into 50% stocks and 50% bonds. The “conservative” option will be 40% stocks and 60% bonds. Because the stock and bond market has historically trended upward, you will most likely see a positive return on investment (ROI) when you are set to retire.
Secondly, I recommend opening up a Roth IRA. A Roth IRA is an individual retirement account (IRA) that allows you to invest up to $6,000 a year into the account if you under the age of 50. Like all IRA’s, the money you contribute is invested into company stocks and Exchange Traded Funds (ETF’s) like the Dow Jones Industrial, S&P 500, etc. Again, ETF’s and large company stocks have historically trended upward, so you will most likely end up with a positive ROI. Most brokerage firms offer a Roth IRA so it is easy to find and set up. TD Ameritrade, Vanguard, Fidelity, Merrill Edge, and more all allow you to open one. The money you contribute to it is after-tax income, but when you withdraw money — which you can do at any time you would like — that withdrawal is tax-free. This is the most advantageous aspect of a Roth IRA compared to a traditional IRA.
Of course, there are restrictions to certain people that want to open a Roth IRA. 1) If you are single and make over $139,000/year, you can’t contribute to a Roth IRA. 2) If you are married and your joint income is over $206,000/year, you can’t contribute. If neither of these apply to you, then opening a Roth IRA is one of the smartest investments you can make!
Opening and contributing to a Roth IRA is the safest way to retire a millionaire. Roth IRA’s have historically generated a 7–10% return on investment. Because of compound interest, let’s say you invest $6,000/year for 10 years. You would now have $83,095 in your account. If you contribute the same amount for 30 years, you would have over $500,000. Now, let’s say you decided to contribute $6,000/year into a savings account that doesn’t yield interest. After 30 years, you would be left with (30*6000) $180,000. That’s a pretty big difference, right? You will have over $300,000 more if you chose a Roth IRA as opposed to a savings account with no interest. If you want to calculate how much money you would have over a certain period of time, there are Roth IRA calculators that will allow you to do that.
I hope I was able to give a good overview and basic information about how these investments work and why you should start investing in them now. There is obviously an abundance of information online if you are looking to go more in-depth into these financial topics. Remember, it is never too late to start investing and better now than never! Happy investing!
