The stock market can be a great place to put your money and watch it grow. It can be very helpful and beneficial. Nonetheless, the stock market can be overwhelming, so it is important to know the basic rules of investing.

Before you get started with investing, it is important to decide how you want to invest. Do you want to make your own choices or do you want an expert to make the choices for you? If you pick an expert, this means, according to NerdWallet, a robo-advisor will do the investing for you. After that, sit down and decide your budget and create an emergency fund, as stated in the Motley Fool and NerdWallet. You don’t want to invest money that you may need in the future.

Next, if you decide not to go with a robo-advisor, you want to pick your stocks; you do this by picking stocks of companies that are familiar to you and remember to avoid high-risk investments until you are more experienced. According to Investopedia, high-risk investments are investments that have a large chance of plummeting but also have a chance of skyrocketing. Also, per the Motley Fool, diversify your stocks, which means having diverse companies in your portfolio. Having a tech company, a travel company, and an apparel company is a strong example of diversification.

Finally, continue to invest as you get more experienced. Be sure that you are checking in on your portfolio periodically to make sure that you are reaching your goals. However, it is important that you try not to look at your investments every day because small daily gains and losses will happen, but it is the long-term gains that matter, as expressed by NerdWallet.

If done right, investing at a young age can put you on the right path to wealth as you get older. Your stocks will continue to grow and provide for you as the years go by. When you think the time is right, you should consider selling your stocks to make the money yours.