For Single Women Ready to Start Investing – Here are Some Easy Steps to Get Started
Money Bag$ by Mackenzie Freemire
I have a confession to make… I am married.
I know, right?!
Why am I here talking with all you single ladies? Well, looking back to my 20’s, which were spent mostly single, there’s only one thing I would have done differently: INVEST!
Investing has generally been thought of as something that men know about. The only people I heard talking about investing in my 20’s were men. That made that world feel so intimidating to me. Fortunately, now, many women are deciding to take the investing world by storm. We are realizing that the world of investing that men have tried to make seem so complicated, is actually really easy to get into and learn about.
The most exciting thing is that statistics are even showing that when women invest, they tend to be even better investors than men!!!
So if you are ready to finally start investing, here are some easy steps to get started:
Pick a Type of Investing Account and Company
My favorite account to get started with is a Roth IRA (Individual Retirement Account), if you make less than $138k a year, or a Traditional IRA if you make more than $138k a year. These types of investing accounts are for retirement, so they have great tax advantages. The great thing about a Roth IRA is that even though it is for retirement, you can pull out any of the money you’ve invested early without any penalty— but if you pull out any of the growth of the account early, you will likely have to pay a fee/taxes.
Fidelity, Charles Schwaab, E-Trade are all great options of companies to open the account with.
Advertisement — Continue Reading Below
Mention Single Girl Club sent you!
Open the Account and Transfer Money into the Account
You can start with as little as $5 a month. The max amount of money you can put into either type of IRA a year is $6,500 or $7,500 if you are 50 or older. They do this because the tax advantages are so good they don’t want the rich to take advantage of this to completely avoid paying any taxes at all.
Invest the Money that You Put into Your Account
This is where things can feel complicated, but they are actually very simple! You can choose individual stocks to invest in, but that would take a lot of work and research. The good news is there is an easier and less risky choice called index funds. Index funds are basically when a computer algorithm puts together a bundle of stocks for us. Two of the most popular index funds are the Total Stock Market and S&P 500.
With the Total Stock Market Fund, if you put $100 in, then that $100 is divided up into very tiny amounts and invested into every single company that is in the stock market (over 4k companies total). The good thing about this is if one company is doing badly there will likely be many companies that are doing great and so it balances things out and provides you with less risk in your investments.
With the S&P 500 it is the same concept but instead of investing in every single company in the stock market you are investing in about the 500 largest companies in the stock market. Most investment companies like Fidelity and Charles Schwaab have their own versions of each of these index funds. For example Fidelity’s S&P 500 is literally called Fidelity® 500 Index Fund and goes by the shortcut FXAIX. Most of these index funds are solid investments. The key is to make sure that it has low fees. The fees are called expense ratios. For example, the fee for FXAIX is 0.015%. That is a very good/low fee. You probably would not want to pay for a fee that is over .50% since there are so many options that are way below that.
That’s it! Put the money in one index fund and you can let it sit there for 10 years and watch it grow. Ideally, you are continuing to put money in year after year. If you do this, you are setting your future up for success. So don’t do what I did and wait until you are 35 to start investing (although if you are older, it is NEVER too late to start investing… my mom started investing in her 50s!) If you want to learn more about investing and personal finance in general in a safe space for women, come join me over on Instagram at @hearmefinance. I would love to support you on your journey!
Disclaimer - This blog post is for informational purposes only. Judy Esber is not a tax professional, accountant, investment advisor, lawyer, or licensed financial advisor. This content is not to be taken as investment advice. Judy provides educational services only so you can make an informed decision with the facts you have.
This information is provided for education and informational purposes only. All writers’ opinions are their own and do not constitute financial advice in any way whatsoever. Nothing published by Single Girl Club, LLC constitutes as financial advice and investment recommendation, nor should any data or content published by Single Girl Club, LLC be relied upon for any financial activities. Single Girl Club, LLC strongly recommends that you perform your own independent research and/or speak with a qualified banking professional before making any financial decisions.
Shop Now
