What’s the point of investing? More money in your pocket. If you can afford to put a little bit of your savings into stocks and bonds every month, then you could be giving yourself an amazing head start on getting rich. 

But before we get started on explaining how to invest, it helps if you know what kind of investor you are: conservative or aggressive? A buy-and-hold type who only buys stocks when they’re low and sells them when they reach high prices? Or someone who likes to trade more actively by buying and selling their shares frequently? Not knowing which kind of investor you are is like having a map but not looking at it while driving; it doesn’t do any good to have a map if you refuse to take a look at it. If you don’t know which type of investor you are, ask yourself the following questions:

• How much money do I have sitting around? Do I want to actively trade or just buy and hold certain stocks for a while?
• Would I rather put my money at risk right now by trading actively? Or would I rather buy a stock and just forget about it for a while?
• How much research do I want to put into this investment before buying shares of the company?

Now that you’ve done some thinking,  you can start considering which investment option is best for you. Here are the most popular types of investments to choose from.

Precious metal

Gold and silver bullion are great options for the conservative investor because they have a secure value no matter what is happening in the economy. While the precious metal market fluctuates with larger economic swings, it’s not nearly as volatile as other markets. Find a good brokerage firm for precious metals and you can buy and sell without having to pay commission fees. Do some research about each type of precious metal on the market today and see which ones interest you most.

Gold and silver can be sold in many forms: bullion, rounds, Krugerrands, and more. Most precious metals will have a premium price if they’re purer than the standard amount of purity for that type of metal. For example, a gold round might have a higher premium than a krugerrand.

Savings Bonds

These are a great investment option if you don’t have a lot of money to invest right now. Savings bonds give returns over time and they’re federally insured, so your funds are safe from being lost or stolen. You first need to buy a single bond for a minimum of $25 and then set up an account with Treasury Direct to buy additional bonds. Savings bonds are typically bought in terms of 6 months, 1 year, 5 years, and 10 years.

Be careful with savings bonds though because there is a penalty for cashing out early. Look into the fee schedule before you invest your money so that you don’t end up losing any earnings if you

The Notorious “PIGS” 

This stands for Portugal, Italy, Greece, and Spain – the European countries that are having major economic problems. If you’re the type of investor who wants to ride out an economic storm by buying investments on sale, this is a great option. One example of a PIG stock is Rio Tinto (NYSE: RTP) which trades for about $37 per share and pays a dividend of 2.6%. You can buy this stock and forget about it until the storm blows over, or you could watch its market price to try and make an even better financial decision by selling when its value goes up.

Mutual funds

Mutual funds are great ways to invest because they give you access to entire markets for a single price. Many mutual fund companies offer investors the ability to purchase “shares” in one of their many different types of mutual funds. An example of this is Vanguard 500 Index Fund Investor Shares (VFINX) which trades for $34.43 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.9%. This type of fund invests in 500 different companies in the S&P 500 index so you get to own part of many different companies at once without having to purchase each stock separately.

Stock markets

The stock market is the most popular type of investing because it allows you to invest in a single company or multiple companies all at once. Stock markets can be very volatile, but if you’re willing to take that risk then there’s a lot of potential for making money quickly. The stock market is not recommended for people who think they might panic and sell their stocks during a big drop in value.

Investing is a great way to prepare for the future, but it can be difficult to figure out where to start. Luckily, there are many different types of investments that you could choose from, precious metals, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and more. Research each type of investment before making any decisions.