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When you get a little extra cash in your bank account, it’s often difficult to decide what you should be doing with it. If you’re the kind of person who likes to be safe and frugal, you might assume that the best option is to squirrel money away into a savings account. However, if you’ve already got enough finances to keep you going in an emergency, then you could be under-utilizing your funds. By investing your cash into the right opportunities, you boost your chances of a small amount of extra income becoming a huge reward. You don’t even need a lot of cash to get started. If you’re willing to take the time to think about what you want to accomplish, how much risk you can take, and how much effort you can devote to your education, you’re ready to get started. Here are 3 steps to put you on the best track. 

Think About How Long You Have

The first thing you need to consider, is how long you can invest for. In other words, when do you need to get the money you put into this new opportunity back? If you’re saving for a home and you want to buy something in the next year or two, then it doesn’t make sense to get involved with shares and funds, because you need a little more patience. On the other hand, if you’re looking for an opportunity to improve your pension in 20 years, then you don’t need to worry as much about short-term falls in value and other problems. Over the long-term, moving your cash into stocks, and funds could mean that you beat inflation and have a better chance of reaching your monetary goals. 

Create a Plan

Once you know how much time you have to reach your goals, think about how you’re going to get from point A to point B. Financial advisors can assist you in drawing up an investment plan that covers everything from how you’re going to invest in penny stocks, to where you’re going to diversify your assets. Your plan will even assist you in identifying which opportunities are right for you in the first place. You might decide to start with low-risk opportunities, like cash ISAs, then gradually add more mid-risk investments that allow you to experiment with different levels of volatility. Only move onto higher levels of risk when you feel fully comfortable in doing so. 

Diversify

Finally, a basic rule of good investment strategies is that you can improve your chances of a better return if you can accept more risk. However, you can manage and improve the balance between return and risk by moving your money into various sectors and investment types. This basically means that you don’t put all of your eggs into one basket. With diversification, you can smooth out your chances of maintaining solid returns so that you don’t have to worry as much about losing all of your profits. From there, you can learn from each opportunity you engage with, and adjust your portfolio as you go.