30-Minute Money Solutions: A Step-by-Step Guide to Managing Your Finances

Part IV. Get Started in Investing

"Just pick up a dish."

One of my high school teachers shared that seemingly frivolous bit of wisdom years ago, and it has stuck with me ever since. It was from an article in a women's magazine she had read in the 1950s, about how to clean up after a dinner party when your house is full of dirty dishes and glassware. The idea was that if you pick up one dish, and then another and another, soon you'll find that you're making real, measurable progress toward your goal. For my teacher, "just pick up a dish" became a metaphor for tackling any task that seemed overwhelming, whether writing her master's thesis or helping students learn trigonometry.

This section, about how to get started in investing, is the equivalent of picking up that first dish. No, it won't teach you everything that you need to know about investing, but it covers the essential first steps to getting started.

In Chapter 10, I discuss an essential precursor to creating a long-term portfolio: creating an emergency fund. Setting some money aside in ultrasafe investments is a must-do before you begin investing in stocks or other long-term securities. This cushion will provide a safety net in case you lose your job, and it will also prevent you from having to tap your long-term investments in case of a financial emergency. In this chapter, I talk about how to determine how much to set aside in your emergency fund, as well as how to select appropriate investments for it.

Once you start putting ...