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So, you have some money, and you want to invest it? Well 2020 is as good a year as any to do it, but where and what should you invest in? If you’re new to this, then it can be challenging to know where to start, but what is essential is to make a plan and stick to it as this will avoid making emotionally-charged decisions. Once you have an idea, all you really need is the confidence and enough knowledge to know what to do, so here’s a start.

Mutual funds
Mutual funds pool your money with other investors and are managed by investors who then use the pooled money to buy securities. This is an excellent way to start investing, rather than going out on your own until you know what you’re doing. With Mutual funds, you are able to invest in a large portfolio of stocks and bonds in one transaction rather than trading them all yourself. This way, you make safer investments, because they are diversified, and it’s also a far cheaper way to invest as you will either pay just one trading commission or nothing at all rather than paying trading commissions to buy a dozen or more different stocks.

CryptoCurrency
Cryptocurrencies have been a topic of intense discussion over the last few years; you’ve all heard stories of people becoming millionaires overnight or those who have lost hundreds of thousands hoping to make some quick cash? Up until a couple of years ago, Bitcoin was the leading cryptocurrency, and while it is still the dominant cryptocurrency, there are new and exciting cryptocurrencies coming out. If you want to invest in cryptocurrencies, then it’s vital that you do your research, that you find out which are the best cryptocurrencies to invest in and which one will suit your needs the best.

Bonds
There are also many different types of bonds, such as corporate, municipal or treasury bonds, all of which are a great way to leverage your investment against the success of other entities. When you purchase a bond, you are basically loaning money to either a company or the government. Bonds are a debt security which raises capital for others, they finance new companies and local projects, and while no investment is risk-free, government bonds are the closest you’re going to get. The government or company selling you the bond will then pay you interest on the “loan” throughout the bond’s lifecycle. Bonds are typically considered ‘less risky’ than stocks. However, their potential for returns is far lower also.

The Stock Market
The most common place for an investor to put their money is into the stock market. This is also said to be the most beneficial places for someone to invest their money. When you buy a stock, you basically own a small portion of the company you bought into. When the company profits, they may pay you a part of those profits in dividends based on how many shares of stock you own. When the value of the stock grows over time, so does the value of the shares you own, meaning that you can sell them at a later date for a profit.

Savings Accounts
This option has the least risk for investment by far. However, it also has the lowest returns. Putting your money into a bank account to gather interest, will, of course, keep your money safe and help it to grow ever so slightly, but, low risk means low returns. So this is probably the worst way to invest your money if you want to see some real growth. However, savings accounts still play a role in investing as they allow you to stockpile a risk-free sum of cash that you can use to purchase other investments or use in emergencies, so you don’t touch your other investments.

Physical Commodities
Physical commodities are investments that you simply physically own, like gold or silver. These physical commodities often function a safeguard against hard economic times. Typically, you can do a simple internet search to find a dealer to sell you a particular good, and when you no longer want it, that dealer will often buy it back. Gold is one of the most common and easiest examples because you’ll make a meaningful investment in gold without it being too bulky to move or to store efficiently. Dealers sell gold coins or bars to investors, and then they will also repurchase those goods when an investor wants to sell. You can find local dealers by word of mouth or through internet searches, and some are rated by the Better Business Bureau or other rating services for reliability and trustworthiness. Online-only dealers are often found through internet searches also, and they’ll often have testimonials or reviews which will help you to gauge whether they’re trustworthy or not.

Do You Need A Financial Advisor?
It’s important to know when it’s best to have a financial advisor. If you’re looking for real financial advice and you have quite a bit of money to handle, a face-to-face advisor will be much better at explaining things to you than any electronic form of advisor. However, investing with robo-advisors could be right for you. These are financial advisors that use algorithms to provide you with the very best advice about financial investments. They are extremely popular because they make investing accessible for everyone with easy-to-use apps; they make investing more convenient and more affordable and have lower investment minimums than standard financial advisors. Robo advisors aren’t for everyone as some people will prefer to invest with a financial advisor because they want face-to-face interaction, professional advice, and don’t mind paying a premium for someone handling their money. Often, people with large sums of money to invest will hand it over to a financial advisor, so they don’t have to do the work. Finding an advisor is relatively easy to do as long as you know the right questions to ask.

So how do you find a financial advisor? You could have a look at companies such as Paladin which can help you to match with qualified financial advisors, or Facet Wealth is an online financial planning firm that offers financial help for anywhere between $600-$6,000 each year.
Facet Wealth is much more affordable than other options, and there are no upfront fees to set up an account.

Investing your money, while it can be risky, is also the best way to make it grow. Having your money double overnight while you sleep is probably one of the best feelings in the world. However, again it doesn’t come without risk.

It’s important to do your research, learn about investing, and what will work for you. Learn about companies and industries too. There are so many start-ups these days, many have a technology element to them as you can’t really get away from that now, whether it’s food delivery through an app or fitness with the help of an app or a tracker, there are so many different industries which are booming at the moment and companies which need investment. If you have money there and you want to grow it, then it’s important to back something or someone you are passionate about and interested in. Don’t make life hard for yourself by having to learn about your money and investments and having to learn about an industry too.

Start small and get a feel for what you’re doing, it’s like anything, it takes time, but your efforts will be rewarded.