How to Get Started in Investing Your Money

LookSeek.com presents
How to Get Started in Investing Your Money
A series of topics that will allow you to learn about how to get started in investing your hard earned money!
By Stephen M. Toth

Part 1 The Basics
Why Invest?
There are many reasons why people invest their money, from wanting to have a nest egg to retire from their job one day, to affording a house or college education for their son or daughter or to start a business.
Understand why you want to invest?

Ask yourself why you want to invest, and what you expect to gain from it. Various investment markets can be very volatile and a bad day could see you losing a large percentage of your investment.

Remember these Golden Rules:
• Good investors invest in the long term. If you are looking to cash out right away, there's a good chance you will get burned by the market.
• Don't invest if you are trying to get out of debt. Make sure any high-interest debts are taken care of before investing in the stock market.
Investing in the stock market successfully requires dedicated time from the investor. Ask yourself if you have the time to investigate and research companies for at least a few hours a week or do you have the time to research professional money markets that do the investing for you.
Concerning bullet point two above, the vast majority of Americans do not save enough or invest enough of their paycheck to achieve their financial goals. We are plagued by high consumer debt caused by excessive use of credit cards with high interest rates and borrowing too much from the banks for purchases of non-producing assets such as cars, motorcycles, ATVs, a vacation home, vacations etc. etc

Michael A. Sauter, Charles B. Stockdale and Douglas A. McIntyre of 24/7 Wall St. Com did an article back in August 15, 2011, on the The Ten Countries Where People Save the Most Money
When it comes to saving, behavior varies widely among nations, but residents of the United States only save 5.8%, while residents of these 10 countries save more than 9% of their disposable incomes. Economists are uncertain why these countries residents save so much more than others. One factor that could affect the saving rate is a country's tax rate or the fixed cost of living. The reasons that people save or don't save could go on and on. It does not matter if you have a high income and this makes saving more likely; this is not the case. It may be that where people make the most money, the costs of goods and services are proportionately high. It also appears that there is no ready relationship between savings rate and other major economic factors in the countries where people save the most.
10. Austria Pct. savings: 9.1%
9. Australia Pct. savings: 9.3%
8. Portugal Pct. savings: 9.8%
7. Switzerland Pct. savings: 10.1%
6. Sweden Pct. savings: 10.8%
5. Germany Pct. savings: 11.4%
4. Belgium Pct. savings: 12.2%
3. Spain Pct. savings: 13.1%
2. France Pct. savings: 16%
1. Ireland Pct. savings: 19.3%

Read more: The Ten Countries Where People Save the Most Money - 24/7 Wall St. Here

Next session: The Difference Between Saving and Investing