by The Hardest Part Can be Taking the First Step
You might be the first one in your family to talk about investing. You might be the first one among your friends or co-workers who talks about finances.
We understand, we support you, and we want to help you take that first step.
The first step can be the hardest. We understand as we were there one time and it can seem daunting. Today we are going to walk you through a few steps to help you get started. Our goal is to make it as easy as possible.
Step 1 – How Much Do You Want to Start With?
Most folks start with “where should I invest?”. We want you to start with how much. We want you to start with an amount that you won’t miss. An amount that you can do on a regular basis without making dramatic changes in your life.
Why?
It’s the first step and we want to make sure you keep going. Think about if you went to the gym and in the first workout the trainer made you do 1,000 push ups, 1,000 situps, 2 hours of cardio, 2 hours of weight lifting….after you told them you hadn’t ever worked out.
You might never go back to the gym. We want to help you create a habit that lasts a lifetime.
A few starter amounts that we recommend people get started with are listed below. Could you do more?
Absolutely!
Our only goal with the options below is to help you get started. So for the first step write down, put a note in your phone, or commit to memory a number from the list below.
- $25
- $50
- $75
- $100
- $125
Step 2 – What is the Goal for the Money?
This is a key part of taking the first step and it can be overwhelming. One of the other ways to look at it is to say how long can I live without this money?
Let’s look at a few common goals or options for investment dollars that we have had folks ask us in the past.
- Home Purchase
- Investment Property Purchase
- Retirement
- College Savings
- More Options in the Future
For today let’s just say you want to have more options. You aren’t sure what you would like to do with your funds, you just want to make sure that you have additional funds available.
Step 3 – Choosing a Place to Start
We hope by now you have an amount to get started with and a goal. The next step is selecting a place to get started.
This is where many individuals get hung up. There are commercials on TV, hundreds of companies running magazine ads, and don’t get us started with the 3 billion search results that show up on Google with you type “financial companies”.
For taking the first step we are going to recommend a few things:
- You want a company that has a solid financial background
- You want a company that has accounts that you can get open with $0
- You want a company that offers a broad range of services and products that you can grow with over time
A few companies that fit the bill:
- Fidelity
- Schwab
- Etrade
- TD Ameritrade
A few questions that come up when we provide this list to individuals:
- Why don’t you list Vanguard? You guys are always talking about Vanguard! Vanguard has minimums that may not make it a great place to start. Minimums at Vanguard start at $1,000 and we want to help people get started whether they have $25, $50 a month or $1,000 to open an account.
- Why don’t you list apps/companies like RobinHood? They are a newer company and have fewer options, today, that can allow you to grow with. We don’t have an issue with them 🙂 it’s just not on our current recommended list.
Most of all we hope you take the first step. What we promise is that once you start you will never look at money the same. You will start to look at every expense differently. You will question whether you need something now or you want to invest for the future.
Twins Rules for Financial Success
As with all of our content here we want to encourage you to follow three core rules :
- Have an Emergency Fund/Squirrel Funds
- Invest for the Long Term
- Invest Automatically & Consistently
