GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — The goal of the 13 ON YOUR SIDE Money Guide is to help you save money AND make more of it.
Investing can be a great way to build your income, and you don't have to be a stock market expert to do it.
The often volatile stock market can seem like the wild west, but having someone you trust navigate it with you can make all the difference.
So first, sit down with a financial advisor, evaluate your current situation and identify your goals.
If your goal is saving for retirement, your employer's 401k plan and match is a great place to start.
"It teaches you about systematic investing and making sure that you are using a routine system that creates a habit and you are not trying to time the market," explained Edward Jones financial advisor Tina Fierro.
What about debt? Should that be paid off first?
"We always want to make sure we are not carrying super high interest consumer debt, that is something that should be addressed first, but student loans, that will depend on the individual...time is on your side with a long term goal like saving for retirement, so it's not always best to wait until those student loans are paid off to start investing" explained Fierro.
And as the saying goes, "There is no time like the present, even if its 50 dollars a month. Time in the market is more important than how much. You are better off starting early with a smaller amount of systematic investing, than starting later and trying to play catch up with bigger amounts."
Consider this -- Person A starts investing $300 a month at age 25 and stops ten years later. Person B starts saving 1,000 a month at 45 and stops 20 years later.
By the time both are 65 years old, Person A will have made nearly 500-thousand dollars more than Person B.
Tina says don't let the ups and downs of the market stop you from jumping in.
"Make sure you are investing for the long term, and focus on what you can control, your spending, your budget, your debt, we can't control the market but focus on what we can do to reach our goals."
What about those apps like Robinhood that make it so easy to invest?
"Make sure the money that you are utilizing for that type of investing isn't something that you are counting on toward a long term goal. When you are picking individual securities or crypto, it's very volatile so just make sure that's not part of your long term planning."
►Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the 13 ON YOUR SIDE app now.
Have a news tip? Email news@13onyourside.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter. Subscribe to our YouTube channel.