Posted on February 27, 2010 by Carole Somer

When you are in your 20’s, the last thing on your mind is saving for your future and thinking about your financial stability down the line in your retirement. However, if you are a young adult and thinking about starting to invest, now is the best time to start investing! The great thing about investing your money at such an early age is the flexibility of the process. Whether you are a student who is in school full time and has limited funds to dedicate to investing, or if you are working full time in a well paying job and have money to spare, there are many different options in order to maximize your profits in the future.

Start simply with setting up a tax free savings account with your bank, to introduce you to the idea and pros of investing early. In Canada, the Tax Free Savings Account is a new program available to all Canadians who wish to start investing for their future. It is a program that allows you to invest up to $5000/year in an investment of your choice, and is tax free when withdrawing any funds from it later on. Today, lots of employers are reducing or eliminating the value of pension plans because they are simply too costly to the company and can’t afford to support every employee in retirement.

The Canadian government is offering these kinds of services to everyone in order to encourage people to start saving for their own retirement.

So here are a few ways that you can easily start saving safely, and with little money! If you are a student and have a part-time job on the side and making limited money, it may be difficult for you to start investing but you can set aside a few dollars a month that can be taken out of your back account automatically. The key to starting off is to start small. The smaller your investment is at first, the less you’ll think about it and worry about not having money for yourself on a day to day basis.

Start by putting $10 dollars from every pay check that you receive directly into your account. If you don’t make a lot of money during school or at your job now, that $10 dollars won’t faze you if you are just putting it directly into a separate account. You can put this money into a very safe mutual fund which will not grow very quickly but in the long run, it will progressively grow over time and leave you with a nice nest egg later on in life. If you are someone who is willing to invest a little more money and a little more risk, put your money into a higher risk mutual fund or stock. It will give you a bigger payout a little faster than a safe fund, but be careful because they also have a more higher risk of taking a bigger dive if the market has a bad day.

If you are just starting your investing or thinking about opening a tax free savings account, this is the best way to begin your investment for your future.