It is a really good idea to make sure that when you are thinking about investing, you do a lot of research first. You want to find out all about all of the types of investment, the risks, the returns and that sort of thing before you go into it. Therefore, you will need to know where to go to do your research. There are different places that you can fid out information and some are better than others.
Financial Advisor
There are financial advisors that specialize in investments and they can therefore be a really useful source of information and help. They will be able to let you know what is available for you considering how much money you have to invest and how much risk you want to take. It is always wise to be extremely clear in how much risk you are willing to take as if you say low risk, they will still give you something that has some risk. You need to remember that there is a risk with all investments and so even a low risk one could mean that you will lose some money and that could be something that you do not want. Therefore, if you want something with no risk, then tell them and they will find you a savings account. Also, you need to bear in mind that you will have to pay a financial advisor so you will need to be prepared for this.
Blogs and Websites
There are loads of places online with information about investing. Lots of blogs and websites have loads of information. It can be extremely tempting to use these as the information is free. There is useful information out there of course but there is also a lot of rubbish. There are things that are just untrue and information trying to lead to part with your money making false claims about potential returns. You therefore have to be extremely careful. Go to sites that you trust for information and think hard about whether it really makes sense or whether it seems a bit of a con. If something is promising a huge return then it is likely to be a con. Most investments will not give you more than 12% and you will normally have to hold them for at least a decade to see an average of this sort of return each year, So be very careful with what you are looking at and try to go to places that you trust for information.
Books
There are a lot of investment books and they can be useful to get general information. However, bear in mind that information in books goes out of date very quickly. If they have general information then this is likely to still apply, but specifics may change and so just be careful what you are reading. Also check out who the author is and what authority they have. Anyone can write a book and you want to make sure that they know what they are talking about and that they have qualifications or experience (or preferably both) in the area that they are writing about and then you will be able trust what they are writing about.
So, although research is really valuable and will be a really useful and sensible things to do, you need to be careful. Think hard about where you are going for help and whether you can trust the information that they are giving you. Consider what their level of expertise is and use that as a guide as to whether you feel that you should trust what they are saying.
