An online FREE tutorial - "Investing For Your Life"

We make planning and save money for our future and the best use of our saving is to invest it at a place which is reliable and could provide profit for our hard earned money. But when our saving is not too much and we are new to 'investing', we need a guidance in this regard. This post is about an online FREE tutorial which is basically a home study course "Investing for Your Future".

This online FREE tutorial is helpful for the people who save money and want to invest their money for their future needs. It is especially for beginning inverstors with a little savings. You can also get the print out of this course as it is very easy to download at your hard disk.

"Investing for Your Future"– is brought to you by the USDA's Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service, this home-study curriculum covers the basic building blocks of sound financial management.

Details of the home study course

11-unit home study course is developed by the Cooperative Extension system for beginning investors with small dollar amounts to invest at any one time. It was assumed that many readers will be investing for the first time or selecting investment products, such as a stock index fund or unit investment trust, that they have not purchased previously.

The course units were developed in a logical order. "Basic" topics such as setting goals, investment terms (e.g., diversification, dollar-cost averaging, asset allocation), and finding money to invest lay a foundation to help readers understand how and why they’re investing. You’ll also begin to understand that there’s generally a trade off between risk and reward. The more risk an investor assumes, the greater the chance of a high return, as well as the greater chance of loss.

After exploring "the basics," the course describes specific types of investments (e.g., stocks and bonds) in detail. You’ll begin to understand their characteristics, how they are purchased, and what it costs to purchase each investment. There are also units that focus specifically on tax-advantaged investments and investments that can be purchased with $1,000 or less.

Finally, Investing For Your Future concludes with additional topics of use to investors: available resources, how to select professional financial advisors, and information to help you avoid becoming a victim of investment fraud. You can choose to read the entire course, in any order that makes sense to you, or select only those topics that are of most interest. The choice is yours.

Simply reading Investing For Your Future will not turn you into a successful investor, however. A printed page simply can never replace the personal motivation that is required to take action to achieve financial goals. That is why there are "action steps" listed at the end of each unit. These are specific steps that readers can take to apply the course material to their lives. We urge you to consider each action step carefully and take action that is appropriate for your individual financial situation. The course also contains a number of worksheets, which, again, are tools to help readers apply the information contained within each unit.

Link: Home study course