Saturday, December 13, 2008

Investments: Where to Invest and You're Risk Tolerance

By Louis Soul

With investments, if you were going to purchase a new car, you would do quite a bit of research before making a final decision and a purchase. You would never consider purchasing a car that you had not fully looked over and taken for a test drive. Investing works much the same way.

With stock markets, learning about the stock market and investments takes a lot of time but it is time well spent. There are numerous books and websites on the topic, and you can even take college level courses on the topic - which is what stock brokers do. With access to the Internet, you can actually play the stock market - with fake money - to get a feel for how it works.

And as a potential investor, you should read anything you can get your hands on about investingbut start with the beginning investment books and websites first. Otherwise, you will quickly find that you are lost.

Your risk tolerance

Determining one's risk tolerance involves several different things. First, you need to know how much money you have to invest, and what your investment and financial goals are.

If you invested in the stock market and you watched the movement of that stock daily and saw that it was dropping slightly, what would you do? In investments in definitely need a stock broker to help you plan on your investment. So don't go on without one.

If you have a low tolerance for risk, you would want to sell out if you have a high tolerance, you would let your money ride and see what happens. This is not based on what your financial goals are. This tolerance is based on how you feel about your money!

Getting your feet wet

Start with an interest bearing savings account. You may already have one. If you don't, you should. A savings account can be opened at the same bank that you do your checking at - or at any other bank. A savings account should pay 2 - 4% on the money that you have in the account.

Certificates of Deposit are sound investments with no risk. The interest rates on CD's are typically higher than those of savings accounts or Money Market Funds. Again this can being back a lot in invest and a good way to start out. - 15790

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