Why It's Easier to Invest Than Ever Before

Investing has gone through many changes in the past decade – not necessarily in the market itself (which is a given) but in general accessibility and the tools that investors use. The result is a new era of easy, accurate investing available to people from all walks of life and wallet sizes. Here are the top reasons why it’s easier to start investing now than ever before.
Online Investing Has Cleaned Up: Online investing tools are stronger and friendlier than ever before. Not only are there plenty of options, but experience and tech advances have turned them into large, respected trading platforms with a variety of different trading options and tools that any investor can quickly learn to use. Common examples include TDAmeritrade, Scottrade, Etrade, Fidelity and many others. These online services also tend to offer customization between as much independence as you want and a number of financial advice or stock management services if you would rather be more hands-off.
Many Tools Exist to Help Young Investors: Stock calculators, mutual fund primers, at-a-glance stock reports, and much more help younger investors to make smart financial decisions and leap into wise investments as early as possible to get a head start. From Mint.com to Moneyunder30 and many financial blogs, young investors have all the good financial management tools and advice that they need to get started confidently.
Global Investing is Easier than Ever: Thanks to a growing number of well-managed mutual funds and global possibilities in emerging markets, global investing is also easier than it ever has been before. Of course, it still requires a sharp eye to watch out for the most promising markets and stocks that offer real accountability instead of fake promises, which is why it is advisable to start out with plenty of research and mutual funds that cover a wide number of foreign investments. Ask Blueprint Wealth for more information on investment portfolio planning.
Financial Advisors Are Offering Increasingly More Services: With the proliferation of online investing, the number of financial advice services has also increased. This is true of traditional financial advice and portfolio management services, of course, but these options are best fitted to someone with a significant amount of money to invest and enough experience in the investment world to learn which brokers and services to use. Fortunately, the other end of the spectrum has proven especially lively with services and educational resources targeted toward beginners. Whether you want some quick advice on a particular mutual fund, a look at the latest tech news, or an explanation of how stocks work, many different resources are available. Some tools go even further – Betterment, for example, is a tool that lets investors begin a level of acceptable risk from a simple scale and then invests money in index funds accordingly without the need for investors to make any complex decisions they are not prepared for.
You Don’t Need Much Money to Start: Another change that has come to the investment market is the understanding that you don’t necessarily need thousands of dollars to begin investing. A few hundred dollars, or even less, is often all you need to start. Of course, along with this flexibility comes a warning: Be careful of funds or stock services that require fees, which can quickly deplete any earnings you may make with smaller amounts of money.