4 Reasons to Start Investing While You’re Still Young!
Living in the moment – and Instagram-ing, Facebook-ing, and Tweeting every second – seems to be the adage of the current “20-something” generation. It’s not always easy to even think about the near future. With this type of mentality comes the risk of forgetting about the long-term and the long, long-term, like retirement. Trust me, I’ve learned my lessons. This is, by far, the lesson that I preach over and over again! Here are four reasons why you should consider investing ASAP.
Reason #1: Direct Investment
You can purchase stocks through a direct investment plan with a company. With direct investing, you do not have to pay commission to a broker, but you may have to pay a fee to the company. They will buy or sell stocks in pre-determined intervals. These intervals could be daily, weekly or monthly. You can hold on to these stocks as long as you want, but the stocks are bought and sold at average market prices. If you want to transfer the stocks later, you may need to pay a fee to withdraw them.
Reason #2: Dividends
If you invest in a company early in its existence, you can make increasing dividends from that company. As the company grows, so grows your payout. Businesses are offering new stocks every day, and it is your job to get in on the ground floor before prices rise. This is especially important to consider as we see an increasing number of tech start-ups emerging as viable investment options.
Reason #3: Time
You need all the time you can get to make money on investments. If you plan on retiring at 50, you only have 25 years to invest if you start at age 25. You may get married, have kids, pay for college and realize that you have less money than you thought. Do not let time run out on you.
Reason #4: The Markets Are Ripe
The markets are currently on an upward swing that you should take a part of now. Some prices on stocks may get too high for you in the very near future, and you need to make sure you can buy stocks as cheaply as possible.
Invest while you are still young because you have less time than you think to plan for retirement.
I have been putting money into my 401k since I started working (when its offered) and I am slooowly learning how it works. I am looking into talking to a representative from Fidelity since I still have retirement savings from another company, which I heard was not ideal to leave there.
Good for you! I would suggest talking to reps from multiple companies JUST to make sure 😉
Keep your retirement savings in the funds with the least fees. If your old retirement savings has lesser fees than your current one, then it’s very wise to keep it there. Make sure the person that you talk to has a fiduciary obligation to you.
Yes. The younger you start investing, the better.