Money Fitness

If you have successfully built and stuck with a budget, established an emergency fund, worked towards paying off your debts and loans, and have set a retirement fund, congrats!! Now is a good time to start thinking about other types of investing and ways to make your money grow!

As you start to take this next step, it is important to think about your investing goals. Some questions to ask yourself are:

• What is the timeline before you will need to access your investments? Remember, in general, the longer they sit the more they grow. 
• How much risk are you willing to take on in your investments? 
• How much money do you have available to invest? 
• What are you investing for? 
• Answering these questions and doing more research on different types of investing and accounts can help you decide where and how you want to invest your money.

It's hard to know where to start investing when there are so many options out there. Two common types of investments that are fairly hands off and (relatively) low risk ways to grow your assets are Exchange-Traded-Funds and Mutual Funds. Researching what these funds are and what benefits they each offer can be a good way to start researching and planning your investments. 

In order to buy into these funds, you will need to set up an account with a financial investment firm. The two largest and highly regarded investment firms in the United States are Fidelity and Vanguard, which both offer a wide array of financial tools and access to funds. Generally these firms offer similar services, however Fidelity might be a little better suited to the new investor given its wide array of planning tools and easy to use website.