Investing Series: How Do You Get Money to Start Investing

This is a part of the Investing Series.

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Sounds silly, but it’s a common question.

Read: Canadians are finding it hard to find money to invest

Here are the 3 ways:

1. Save your money
2. Make more money
3. Borrow it

That’s it.

There’s really no other way, although I will mention that to borrow any sum of money, you generally need to put down a little of your own as well, or be aware that if you lose your money, you still have to pay the piper.

Generally speaking, no one is really going to lend you 100% of the money unless there’s something of yours they can take and re-sell (also known as “collateral”).

The good news is you only need to check out the minimum purchase price on what you want to buy, and get that amount of money to start investing.

For instance, the minimum purchase price on this particular index fund from E-Series is $25:

TD E-Series US$ S&P 500 Index Fund

 

That’s all you need. $25 to get started.

Even this kid could start investing, I bet!

So how do you start saving money to invest?

Only one option, really:

• Cut back on your expenses by tracking how much you waste spend each month

You do this by reviewing what you already spend.

So how do you start making more money to invest?

If cutting back is not an option you need to make more money:

• Get a second job and work part-time for your nights and/or weekends
• Ask for more hours and overtime at work by taking on more shifts
• Start giving lessons in what you know: piano, tutoring
• Babysit
• Walk other people’s dogs and cats
• Ask around for any odd jobs you can do for people that they might pay you for
• Pick up a newspaper route
• Ask around for what you could do to make money — you may be surprised at all the answers!

Also, contrary to what you might believe, making more money is not a tax burden or a curse — the government doesn’t take more than what you earn (Vanessa’s Money)), because you just get taxed on the additional amount but you keep the bulk of what you made!

The government doesn’t take 100% of your earnings above a certain salary. They just take the taxes.

If they did take all your money, we’d be Communists and millionaires wouldn’t exist…. or if they did, they’d most likely flee the U.S. and Canada the way millionaires are fleeing France because of the fear of a 75% income tax on the rich.

So how do you start borrowing money to invest?

You don’t unless you’re financially responsible, and that’s all I’m going to say on this matter.

If you are already financially responsible, you know where to borrow the money and how to use it wisely, and you certainly don’t need tips on where to borrow that money.

I really don’t want (at this point) encourage anyone who is starting to invest, to borrow money to invest, and the STUPIDEST THING OF ALL would be for you to think you can take money out from your credit card and play with it on the stock market.

Things go wrong, people panic and before you know it, you’re $50,000 in the hole and cursing my post on how to borrow money to invest.

The safest options for people starting out are to:

1. save their money
2. make more money to be able to save it

If you can’t do either properly, then don’t invest your money.

Master the basics of personal money management first.