Tips for newcomers to the world of investments

The first thing to remember before you start investing is that investments can go down as well as up. Investing is a form of gambling but, unlike the games in casinos where the odds are very much stacked against you, you have a good opportunity to make a significant return on the money you have invested.

Remember again that you can lose money as well as gain it and you are in a position to start researching the world of investments and choose what suits you.

Risk appetite

Before you start investing, it's a good idea to find out what sort of investor you are. Do you like to take risks, or are you more comfortable with investments that may not make you as much return as riskier ones but are likely to give you steady returns? You should plan your goals at this stage. For example, if you are looking at retirement planning, then you need to consider the amount of time you have for your investments to grow. If you're mixing this with investments that will grow quickly – usually considerably riskier – then you need to be certain about how much you can afford to lose.

This is particularly the case if you intend to pursue riskier investments, and it's here where your research into options is essential. You can, of course, do a lot of the work yourself, but don't be fooled into thinking you can beat the professionals at this early stage. Everyone has to start somewhere, so learn the lessons by plugging into online information websites that will set you on your way.

A brief guide to some types of investments

A reminder again: risk-free investments don't exist; but you can get good yields from investments that have low to moderate risks as well as those that are riskier.

• Preferred stock: investing in companies can bring good returns, especially if a business is doing well and is producing good dividends. You can hedge your bets by choosing different types of preferred stock depending on how you want to get your returns.

• Utility stock: people are always going to need electricity, gas, and water, so utility stocks generally stay quite stable in price, paying dividends two or three percentage points above treasury securities – these are bonds issued by the federal government where you lend the government money for a fixed period. Returns are not particularly high but are as safe as you can get in the investment business.

• Real estate: real estate can be a good investment, but you need to understand the circumstances of the area or areas in which you intend to invest. Construction companies building domestic housing or business park developments will have done their planning carefully – after all, they want to turn a buck, too – but it's always worth looking into a company's background of success, or otherwise, before making a decision.

• Technology: remember Apple and Microsoft, not to mention Nintendo, Sony, Dell, and Samsung among many other technological giants? If you want to invest in tech companies, take the time to look through their results over a few years – these companies are innovative and make a lot of money. It might be expensive initially to buy stock, but you could be in a position to make good returns as new products and services are developed.

• Binary options: a relatively new way of investing, binary options give you the potential to profit from the way values of a wide range of commodities, stocks, shares, and assets will move. Binary options trade can be accessed through various platforms, and you can find out how to do it by accessing IQOption reviews. When you trade through binary options, you only have two options to choose from, which makes it a popular form of trading. You choose the asset, stock exchange, or commodity you want to place a trade on and, with educated research, decide whether that will increase or decrease in value over a set period of time. If your decision is right, then you will make money. The only downside is that if it is wrong, you will lose what you have placed. It's the reason you need to take that research time to look at movements of stocks, commodities, currencies, or indeed anything you want to consider investing in.

Invest for the future

By taking the time to know and understand how and what you want to invest, you will have excellent opportunities to make your finances grow over the years.