Making money in the stock market can be dependent on your willingness to invest in long-term investments or buying only undervalued stocks. With a margin of safety on these stocks you will have a little peace of mind and if you are like Warren Buffett, you too may well be able to enjoy an average 22% annual gain. Even more enticing if you know that that’s his record over the last 39 years!

Tremendous results like this are not easily duplicated in the short term or without great experience. With some work and time being on your side it is possible to be the next Warren, but even more possible and likely is for you to become a major player on the investment scene.

No seriously, you can.

The S&P 500s average long term result is a return of about 11%. Now if you aimed to beat that consistently, that would mean that you are doing very well indeed, almost well enough to live a very comfortable, relaxed existence.

For example – you have $3,000 a year that you can invest purely for your future retirement.

Why are you screaming at $3,000 a year? That’s only $250.00 a month! Come on – you want to retire, don’t you?

Well, invest that in a tax-efficient retirement account that compounds interest, hitting the average 11% at least. Now have a look at your account in twenty years time and you’ll find that you have an extra $178,000, thanks to compound interest – a total of $238,000.

The key to the game is not so much the size of the financial investment that you are making as it is the way that you use it.

Starting young and using the power of compound interest can make you a retirement millionaire in less time than you could ever have imagined. Some investors will lovingly call using compound interest simply using the force while others simply call you an idiot for not using it. If you are one of the ones with the foresight to start investing now, you will be one of the ones with the ability to brag about the general comfort of your retirement.

Warren Buffett and Benjamin Graham arent geniuses or once-in-a-lifetime lucky dogs; they are a few guys who used their money to make money. By putting in everything later in life you may make a solid return, by putting in a solid amount early in life, you may make everything.

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Its fun to play with financial calculators and see what might happen.

Assume you have just graduated from college, are about 22 years old and I just started your first real job. If you put $100 a month in an IRA that grows at 10% a year, you will have about $865,000 at age 65. 10% a year compound growth is about what you should exect if the money was invested in a no-load S&P 500 Index Fund.

So for about $23 a week or $3.30 a day you would be close to being a millionaire.

If you contributed the full $4000 a year allowed right now to an IRA (rising to $5000 in 2008), you would have $2,600,000. For about $11.00 a day, you would have a small fortune.

If you didnt want to take a chance with the stock market because it goes down sometimes, you would still have over $600,000 if you could get a 5% return.

If your grandmother leaves you $10,000 in her will and you invest it for the same 43 years at 10% without adding another cent, youd also have over $600,000 if you placed it in a tax sheltered account.

Time and the power of compound interest are on your side. So if youre in you twenties and want to get rich, do whatever you have to scrape together that IRA contribution. Every day you procrastinate is another day your money is not working for you.

However, most people in their twenties need the money for more important things, like new cars and HDTVs. You also have school loans to pay, children to raise and the new mortgage to pay off. But if you prioritize your life and stick to a budget, $11.00 a day is doable, although you might have to scrimp here and there.

Consider that most people are spending their lives paying the freight for borrowing other peoples money. If you save and invest, other people are paying you to use your money. Its a lot more fun to see your money working to help you get rich than
having to work yourself.

Think about the effect expenditures have on your financial future. If you bought a late model used car instead of new one, you would probably save $10,000 or more depending on the model. That $10,000 as noted above, would grow to almost $600,000 by the time youre 65 if invested in tax sheltered accounts.

Now look at it from the opposite angle, the extra money you spend on that new car you yearn for and must have now, will cost you $600,000 by the time youre 65
and the car has long since been recycled into tin cans.

Id probably buy the car too, but its useful to consider the consequences.

It gets harder to get rich slowly as you get older. If you wait until youre 32 and put away $4000 at 10%, you would have about $975,000, still a respectable amount.
At 42, youd only be able to accumulate approximately $350,000. If youre 50 and
can start putting $5000 away today, youll have around $175,000 at age 65.

Everyone knows that Social Security is not going to allow for a comfortable retirement. Even if the plan can continue to pay out forever, which is questionable right now, the money you receive will be far from generous and is subject to taxation. And you might have a good pension plan at work now, but will you be able to hold your current job to
retirement?

If you have a Roth IRA, you can withdraw the money tax free after age 59 . Imagine having a million tax free dollars you can play with. It will well make up for the small sacrifices you have to make to get rich.

No matter what your age, start saving what you can now – today. Even if you only amass $100,000, youll be better off than most people entering retirement.

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Low Risk Investments
While low risk investments are usually very low key and rarely are extremely glitzy or publicized, they do offer conservative investors a way to save money for the short or long term without the risk involved that you find in other forms of investing. Low risk investments usually pay the lowest yields, but are far less volatile than many other types of investments. Low risk investments include money market funds, certificate of deposits and some types of bonds. Low risk investments are perfect for those that want to make sure there money remains safe and secure. While low risk investments dont offer high returns, they do offer stability and security for those that cant afford to lose money or would just like to avoid as much risk as possible. Expect low risk investments to pay out yields of 1% to 5% annually.

Moderate Risk Investments
Moderate risk investments are perfect for those that are interested in investing for the long term and would like to earn moderate yields. Moderate risk investments are usually certain kinds of stocks, bonds and mutual funds that pay handsomely over the long term. While generally riskier than saving money in a bank, for those that are looking to invest for the long term, historically speaking you will grow your money quite nicely. Moderate risk investments usually use the power of compound interest and time to create a nest egg from 10 to 40 years with regular savings. For instance, saving 1K per year at an interest rate of 10% for 30 years can return close to 200K. Moderate risk investments usually return yields of 5% to 12%.

High Risk Investments
High risk investments are those investments that if you are lucky can return huge yields, however the downturn is that they can be extremely volatile and in many cases instead of getting rich off your investment, you find yourself losing some or all of it. High risk investments include penny stocks, international stocks, some types of Forex trades, etc. The sky is the limit for returns, but many high risk investments- if considered a winner should return yields that range from 10% to 30%++.

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