Multiply your money strategies

Top advices for how to multiply your money. If you want to be hands-on and enjoy making investment decisions, you might want to consider buying individual shares – but make sure you understand the risks. If you don’t have the time or inclination to be hands-on – or if you only have a small amount of money to invest – then a popular choice is investment funds, such as unit trusts and Open Ended Investment Companies (OEICs). With these, your money is pooled with that of lots of other investors and used to buy a wide spread of investments. If you buy investments, like individual shares, direct, you will need to use a stockbroking service and pay dealing charges. If you decide on investment funds, there are charges, for example to pay the fund manager. And, if you get financial advice, you will pay the adviser for this. Whether you’re looking at stockbrokers, investment funds or advisers, the charges vary from one firm to another.

Regardless of the source, never accept a stock tip as valid. Always do your own analysis on a company, before investing your hard-earned money. While tips sometimes pan out, long-term success demands deep-dive research. Rather than panic over an investment’s short-term movements, it’s better to track its big-picture trajectory. Have confidence in an investment’s larger story, and don’t be swayed by short-term volatility. Don’t overemphasize the few cents difference you might save from using a limit versus market order. Sure, active traders use minute-to-minute fluctuations to lock in gains. But long-term investors succeed based on periods of time lasting years or more.

The answer is by buying an index fund. Index funds are the best friend of the passive investor who want an easy way to invest in the market. An index fund is a type of fund with a portfolio constructed to track a certain index. Index funds can track the return of the S&P 500, Dow Jones, or NASDAQ. Index funds can either be exchange traded funds or mutual funds that hold securities in a given market. A S&P 500 index fund will buy shares of the 500 largest companies in the United States and will track the movements of the Standard and Poor’s 500 index. This fund will replicate the performance of the S&P 500 index. If the S&P 500 index is up 10 percent for the year then a fund like the Vanguard S&P 500 index or the iShares S&P 500 index should be up approximately 10 percent as well. Read more on Easiest Way to Invest Money.

If you’re on a tight budget, even the simple step of enrolling in your 401(k) or other employer retirement plan may seem beyond your reach. But there is a way that you can begin investing in an employer-sponsored retirement plan with amounts that are so small you won’t even notice them. For example, plan to invest just 1 percent of your salary into the employer plan. You probably won’t even miss a contribution that small, but what makes it even easier is that the tax deduction that you’ll get for doing so will make the contribution even smaller. Once you commit to a 1 percent contribution, you can increase it gradually each year. For example, in year two, you can increase your contribution to 2 percent of your pay. In year three, you can increase your contribution to 3 percent of your pay, and so on.

Imagine you’re buying an ownership stake in the convenience store around the corner from your house. Automatically you’ll think about the competition, suppliers, prices, etc. You’ll have to think both about the specific location as well as its competitive position in the market. Similarly, while buying stocks, you need to think about all these things – just as the people running the business do. When you buy a stock, you’re not just buying a piece of paper or a ticker symbol. Buying the stock of a company is buying an ownership stake in a BUSINESS.

About MultiplyMyMoney : I have more than 12 years of experience as an independent and personal financial and investment consultant. I used to run a financial blog called BuylikeBuffett which provided insight on investing, saving, money management, and all things finance. I am also the author of Your Financial Playbook: A Guide To Navigating The World Of Personal Finance a financial guide written to inform the beginning investor about the basics of the market. I decided to start a new site because I receive a great number of questions about financial topics on a daily basis. I figure that this would be a great way to answer those questions and increase financial literacy. I also figured it would be a good platform to write articles on everything from teaching how to get rich, explaining the basics of cryptocurrency, to detailing ways of rebuilding your credit score. I was the founder and president of New Horizons Financial Management, LLC, and was a registered investment advisor. New Horizons was an independent investment advisory asset management and personal financial consulting firm offering investment advisory services to high net worth individuals. Read extra info at Learn how to multiply my money.