Have you thought of investing but not sure where to start?

At 8 years of age, with COVID just starting I decided to introduce my oldest to the Stock Market. Of course I signed her up with what I've talked about on my prior post ---> Outschool.com There are different classes for the kids depending on what age they are. I had her take classes from different teachers and she was really enjoying the class that Lisa Kornberg was teaching. If the cost is a little higher than the other folks, I believe she was using tools and fun things teaching the class. I believe she had used a Simulation to get the kids join and make it a game type of experience so it was pretty fun and exciting for my daughter. Why am I telling you this? I wish I had known about the market earlier, but of course I did learn about it later in life and of course, it's never too late to get in. So get your kids to be aware of it earlier for their own benefit. Below is a photo of McK showing me what she had learned because I had work for her to do as part of homeschooling around stocks. Helps reiterate what she learned and less time for me to spent on some of the research.

Anyways I am no expert in any of the different types of investing but I do dabble in a few which I will share. So if you're in Corporate (working) and have a 401K and a ROTH IRA. Hooray you're already there. There are quite a few more of them accounts that you might want to look into if you're looking to invest for retirement.

In my situation where I was no longer working I decided to do a rollover to E*Trade.com. In normal terms, you're just moving your money from your company to a brokerage account. You have to do a rollover or else you will get taxed for taking your money out of your 401K/IRA. I also wanted to take it out because in order for me to invest in other stocks (that I'm interested in) rather than just investing in the funds the company offers. I needed to move my funds to a brokerage company. I did just that. I called E*trade since I already had a brokerage account with them. The financial consultant then took over (call with the company payroll/retirement) and got all of it done for me (while I was on the phone). Very easy...

Why would you want to invest in the stock market and especially now? For me it's because I've watched my accounts go down in 2008 with the Real Estate (RE) crash. However when the market came back, my funds doubled, and it is way better than the % you get from a Savings account. I even took a loan from my 401K at that RE crash time to help with buying my first RE. So if you're scared of investing now during this recession...it is understandable, but look at it as an opportunity to buy good stocks at a discount. I haven't seen some of the stock prices we are seeing lately for a long time, so if I were you it's the perfect time to collect up funds and ready to buy cheap. When you see things starting to turn around it's time to buy up some stocks (below photo is a snapshot of TSLA stock that split and was at the $300s but it dropped to where it is now, and I'm expecting a little lower). In order for you to buy stocks, you're going to need to open a brokerage account.

I can't help but remind you please educate yourself, soooo if you're brand new to investing, CLICK ---> here to look at the different types of account they have available for you to invest in. Ask questions to people you know or even call the brokerage folks they are happy to answer your questions and sign you up.

Hope you've seen the different account types and investments. Normally the IRA and ROTH IRA are pretty popular accounts... They both have tax deductible benefit ($6K/year) meaning you're able to contribute up to that amount and it's tax deductible. If you're interested or into trading stocks (buying stocks or selling stocks) you can use your IRA or ROTH IRA to do just that. For the IRA you won't pay taxes on any profit, but you will be taxed when you start withdrawing your money for retirement (at 59 1/2 years old). For the ROTH IRA, you do not get taxed as well and I believe that you won't need to pay taxes at all when you take money out...again I'm not a financial advisor nor an accountant so DO YOUR OWN research. These 2 accounts do have an age limit, you will be penalized with a 10% tax if you withdraw before you're 59 and half.

If you're new to E*Trade and want to sign up for a brokerage account a minimum of $500 is all you need to get that started. To open an account you CLICK HERE You have 3 choices, you sign up as an Individual, or Joint account with your significant other or you're getting an account for your kid (Custodial account). Just follow the information and complete everything as best as you can. When it gets to the section that asks for your liquid assets, that is asking for asset that can easily be converted into cash in a short amount of time. Liquid assets include things like cash, money market instruments, and marketable securities.

The other investments that I have come to dabble in is Crypto. I expect a lot of folks to hear about Crypto by now because it's a daily topic in the news with all the frauds and Bitcoin going up or down etc. I started getting into crypto in 2017. Even though I knew nothing about it I decided why not buy some and I had bought with money that I was willing to lose. You can buy crypto through Coinbase.com I didn't put too much into it but when it ran up to its All Time High, you got it right, I took most of it out paid off big debts and took the girls traveling. Even though I barely have anything today from that investment, I have no regret because I didn't know that it was going to run that crazy. However, seeing that it dropped it like it's hot, I'm all good with my decision. My kids also had such fun memories of those travels (that is priceless!). So if you are to invest in these, like everything else, know what you're risking. I mean, that's easier said than done, look at our accounts now with this recession that's going to linger. RED and more RED...hahaha! OMG, please don't panic and take your funds out because they always come back kicking and better than before... It is how it has always been if you go back in time...

The other investment I wanted to share was Real Estate (RE). My husband never liked the idea of being landlords so I didn't bother with buying RE. However, in my head, our home is our RE investment until I came across fundrise It is an App that I transferred some money into and they invest it by buying up a collective of RE and as they go up or down it affects my investment just like a stock would. I'm sure others do RE investment differently but this is how I am going about RE investment. Again, not a financial advisor so if you do invest in anything know your risk...in other words, if you wake up and all those funds are gone and you're going to go coocoo DON'T DO IT!! Please be realistic with your decisions don't bother to do things because everyone else is doing it. Be real with what you can or can not lose. At the end of the day your mental health and your family's lively hood comes first. I shouldn't have to say that because we should all know better by now unless you're a kid.

Please note, if you're opening any account using my links I do get something out of that (in the form of funds or credit etc) so just letting you know because I don't want anyone to be like...WTH, she didn't say anything about that...well now you are aware! Okie dokes, email me and ask me any questions if you must... BUT PLEASE if you're emailing to tell me I'm wrong about something, you don't like this or that you were feeling some kind of negative about this or that...thank you for wasting your time and mine. I urge you to go talk to your closest buddy or a therapist about your feelings because I am sure I will not be of help to you... Just know that I'm sharing MY experiences and YOURS maybe different. ENJOY and Thanks for stopping by, till next time!!