Money Matters
NestCayla
admin
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
how to even get started
Hey you guys! I have some money questions that might make me look/sound very naive. So, please don't judge!
So, I want to start investing my money some where. How do I even get started? Do I seek council on how to do this by a professional? It's not like I have a lot of money to invest, but I know I need to start doing something!
I guess that leads to another question, even if I have little money to invest some where... is it even worth it? Should I even both investing even if it's not that much?
Appreciate any help or guidance AND tips on how to get started with this!
Thanks everyone!
Re: how to even get started
I started out with a financial representative to get my investments started. I chose New York Life because of their values and principals. Most of my investments are still with them. It also doesn't matter how much you have to invest. Something is better than nothing. My first investment started with $2k a year being put into it.
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As a new investor, you probably want to start saving for retirement in the form of your employer's retirement plan (if they offer one). Contribute at least as much as they match. So if they offer a match of 5% be sure to contribute at least 5% of your paycheck. Then you end up getting 10% due to your contribution plus the employer's.
That's a good starting place.
After you have this set up, you can also open up an IRA. Pretty much all IRAs are mutual funds.
A mutual fund is a grouping of stocks/bonds from a variety of sources. Mutual funds are diversified across industries and sizes of companies and might also have bond and stock mixes. They are pre-set meaning you don't get or have to select the stocks inside your mutual fund.
Personally, I like Vanguard. It has low or no fees and I've found their website and customer service to be really good.
To invest outside of your employer's plan, you will need in most cases to have a minimum amount/starting amount, to open up your IRA. Some plans are $1k. Other's are less or more.
Also, you may want to read a book like Retirement or Investing for Dummies.
The miracle of compound interest means you should start even with a little.
Before you do anything -- READ. Read the business section of your paper. Read the Wall Street Journal. Read (or at least skim) some books on investing. Check out websites like the Motley Fool & even the financial sections of MSNBC or CNBC.
Then ask around for recommendations & find a financial advisor.
I don't think it's silly to want to get started with a small amount- you have to get started somehow. When I got my first 'real job' teaching I started putting 5% into a 403B account that my school district offered- every time I got a raise, I put some of that raise into the retirement account as well. I've now had this account 8 years, and it's at like 30K- which I know means I"m a long ways from retirement, but still, overtime it all adds up!
The easiest way to start is through your work. If they don't offer anything then go to your bank and see if they offer a Roth IRA. If not, then I would contact one of the 'big' investment company. My husband and I work with AXA equitable and we have been pretty happy with our advisor. He meets with us about once a year to check on our goals and tell us how everything has been going with our investments- and we don't feel like the fees are that high.