The Savage Truth on Money, 3rd Edition

CHAPTER 7The Savage Truth on Investment ChoicesGetting Started Is Easy

The idea of investing in the stock market may seem overwhelming at first. There’s so much to learn, so many different “opportunities” to invest—and so many people willing to give you advice. But it doesn’t have to be complicated or time consuming to start investing. And you don’t have to start with a lot of money. Here’s how to get going.

Starting Small with Stocks

Let me say right from the start that you don’t need a lot of money to get started investing in stocks and you don’t have to sign up with a well-known brokerage firm. In fact, the latest technology has created the opportunity to take your “small change” from credit card purchases and amass those pennies into a stock purchase. So to keep you from being overwhelmed by the process of opening an investment account, here are three easy ways to start your investments—or to get a child or grandchild started on investing in stocks.

1. The Acorns App. Acorns is a financial services app that resides on your smartphone. But you can learn more about it at www.Acorns.com. It starts with the simple premise that you should invest your small change—money you won’t miss. So you enroll your credit cards and checking account, and all the purchases you make are rounded up to the next dollar. When you’ve amassed just $5, the money is rolled into one of the five low-cost fund portfolios designed to give you either conservative or more aggressive exposure to the stock ...