how to save and grow my little wealth.

Hi Folks,
my name is Sid, i'm 22. i work part time and study as well. i earn about $700 a week after tax. out of which i can save about $2000 every month if i go little hard on me. i want to know what is better, shares or funds. basically if i see cash in my account, i go crazy and spend it. i have no experience in shares or funds at all so i dont what are they and how do they work. i tried to go to a finance advisor but seems like he was pushing me to put my money in shares. i dont know what to do. if i put money in funds, how does it grow?
please advice me forum.
thanks

Sid

 

hey man,

its cool that you want to start making your money work for you, i used to work in construction until just after i retired in april this year, i basically have been mentored for the last year and a half by a guy who has opened up a whole world of opportunities that i never thought were available to me, now i love sharing what i have learnt with anyone who is willing to listen..the problem with most financial planners is they get paid by the same companies, that they are reccomending, I dont work for anyone and I dont get paid commissions, and I dont provide financial advice, I just find the people that are getting consistently proven results, and copy them...easy

 

If you want a set and forget strategy you might want to look into low cost index ETFs:

http://www.asx.com.au/documents/products/asx_etf_product_list.pdf

Most of those "Australian Broad Based Etfs" listed at the top should give you good diversification for a pretty small management fee.

Bare in mind you'd want to have a 10 - 20 year investment horizon with all the volitilty going on at the moment.

 

Sid,

The first question I'd ask is, "What are my goals and their timeframes?"

For example, if my goal is to buy my first house in two years, investing in shares or managed funds (with share exposure) runs the chance of putting you in a worse position. In which case, regular savings to high-interest online accounts could be worth a go. You've mentioned that discipline is an issue; so consider setting these savings aside into a separate account - maybe with another bank so it is a bit more 'out of sight'.

If you genuinely have a long timeframe (the consensus seems to say 7+ years), then you could look at shares/funds. At age 22, it can be difficult to project that far into the future - in fact, it can be difficult for any age!

If you're inclined to, share your goals and timeframes with the forum, and you may get some more specific answers.

Happy saving and/or investing.