Become an owner with $50

You don’t need to know more or have thousands of dollars before you start investing. Start building your wealth with what you have today! If instead you wait until you know more or have more you keep putting it off and the risk isn't choosing the wrong investment it's not investing at all.

You can start with $25, $50, $100. When you invest through something like an ETF, mutual or index fund, you’re buying into a portfolio that gives you ownership in a collection of companies. By doing this there will be companies that perform better than others at different times so they help keep stability of the portfolio. No, investing isn’t risk-free. Your investments WILL go up and down. That’s a normal part of investing. But when you choose a diversified (investment talk for mix of companies/sectors/ geographies) portfolio, you aren't gambling you're purchasing the opportunity for long term growth and that growth starts to compound when you get started.

You might be thinking, but what if the market crashes? Believe me, I'm waiting for it too, and yes at some point we will see a big pull back. BUT, trying to time the market is a game not even the experts win at. The trick is to start, keep contributing, and give your money time to grow. Even if you start today and the market drop tomorrow, that is not going to make a big difference when you don’t plan to use the money for 20 years. It's important to have a plan that fits your timeline, being able to brave the uncomfortable times in the markets, and continuing to contribute through the ups AND the downs. Bonus: down markets means you get more pieces of the pie for less.

So if you’ve been thinking, “I don’t have enough to invest.” or “I’ll start when I know more.” or “I’m scared I’ll do it wrong.” The reality is, there's no better time then now to get started by simply starting!! Pick an amount you can stick with. The number is less important than the action at this point. Once you build the habit of automation you can adjust accordingly. Your future self will thank you for pulling the trigger to get started and when you start to see that number compound it might even stop feeling like a sacrifice.

If you've already gotten started, but haven't adjusted your contributions recently, this is your sign to bump it up. Maybe it's just a small percentage or an increased $ amount, every little bit counts. Beware of SALY (same as last year) Making small adjustments to your contributions makes a big difference to what you will grow and chances are you won’t notice the difference when it happens automatically.