Investing For Teens

Beads of sweat trickle off every inch of your clammy skin and your heart pounds as if your LeBron James in the NBA playoffs. That’s what placing your first trade is like at the age of 18, I would know, I did it.

The first assumption every young person makes is that there is no way they can take advantage of the huge amounts of money being made everyday by savy business men and women who seem to have it all. Prada suits, iPhones, SL 55 Mercedes hard top convertible, you name it they seem to have it. To quickly jump off topic often times all they have is a couple bottles of Pepto Bismol and a load of stress but that is a whole other ball game, right now lets focus on grasping the American dream or what some consider this "dream" we hear about. So where is all this money being made?

WALL STREET.

Now don't tell me that you have lready moved on because investing is to far out of reach for you, because let me tell you it is well within reach and many people are doing it and making enormous amounts of money. Some people are also losing money, which should be expected, but as long as you do your "homework" and invest wisely you should be fine. Warren Buffett started out with $105,000 and never worked a normal job a day in his life. Now worth over 60 billion dollars I think he discovered a way to invest which is priceless.

YOU ARE NEVER TO YOUNG TO INVEST.

That should be your first realization and the money maker. You can start investing on your own at any age (if your under 18 years old then you need a gaurdian) and you should! If you haven't ever thought or heard about compound interest then now is the time. Compound interest is basically magic and can make anyone rich with enough time, especially in today's world.

You could walk down to the bank, open a money market account that pays out roughly 4% and continue to put a portion of your paycheck into the account. When you finally go back to that account years later when your ready to say buy a house, retire, or do whatever you need money for, it will have grown substantilly, that is the power of compound interest. AND what's so awesome about compound interest is that you don't even really have to invest, you are simply making your money work for you, you are being smart with your money and that will reward you in the end. This concept can be talked about in great detail but for this purpose short and sweet is the best way to go.

A book that describes it extremely well and gives you a tool to really put this idea into work is The Automatic Millionaire, I recommend it, it's a quick and easy read and full of great information.

I put a compound interest chart below which gives you an idea of the power it truly has to transform your money into more money with literally ZERO RISK.

What is thr true secret to wealth?

LET YOUR MONEY WORK FOR YOU.

It truly is that simple, the rich get richer while the poor get poorer and it is because the rich let their money work for them. While they are out golfing, vacationing or kayaking their money is working hard for them through their investments. When the average person is doing these luxurious activities they are simply mising out on money being made. So the rich continue to get rich while the poor get poorer, this is a fairly well known saying which is sadly all to true. You can change that however! All you have to do is start investing, you can start with as little as you like, I would recommend at least $1,000 even better $5,000 but if you only have $500 that will work too, anything is better than nothing!

You will hear a number of different suggestions on where you should allocate your money if you decide to invest it. My best advice, don't listen to the advice of everyone else, do your own research and from your findings make an educated decisoon. Taking advice from others who claim to be experts is a sure fire way to lose your money. Simply put

NEVER TAKE STOCK ADVICE FROM ANYONE.

If you want some help on what vehicles you should put your money in that is not so bad, matter of fact most everyone does this at some point, usually when they are first starting out. However you don't want to take stock advice from anyone. Let me put it this way, if they really knew what they were talking about they would be rich, retired, and care less about you and your money, but they aren't that rich, retired, or sailing through the Bahamas and that's because they don't really know it all and you should be the wiser to not take their advice to heart. Listen to it sure, be polite of course, but act on the advice no thank you.

The advice for new young people when it comes to Investing can go on forever. The best way to really start to get into the subject and learn more about it is to simply

RESEARCH.

The best way to learn about anything, and the way I got into finance, is reading. Read everything you can get your hands on and there really is so much out there on finance. That is exactly what I did I read everything I could, I have read 17 book sjust on different aspects of finance, many going over similar topics but everytime I read them I pick up new ideas and tidbits of information.

Below are a few videos: Investing 101 and 102 which are very helpful and full of information. So if you are interested in learning more start there and then check out my links which will take you to a number of places where you can look up articles and will be exposed to a number of different tools that are available.