Unless you’re a seasoned professional, deciding where to invest and by how much can be seriously tricky. There’s so much to think about, and that’s before you’re even thinking about the right time to see a return.

However, that doesn’t mean it should be scary and there is plenty of help on hand when deciding to invest across a whole variety of different ways.

Knowing How Much You Want To Invest

Of course, the first thing you need to decide is how much you have and are willing to invest.

This will vary from person to person and can often be hugely influential in what you wish to invest in. What also is important to know is why. Why are you investing? What do you want to see come out the other end? A specific return from a specific time frame or are you open to what comes your way?

This can help you shape a plan and have a firm idea of where you want your investment to be at various stages along the way.

How Much Risk Should You Take?

Thinking about how much risk you’re willing to take is also one of the first and most important things to think about.

If you’re not wanting to take any real risk an ISA or Certificate of Deposit investment may be something worth considering.

Now, we all know what an ISA is and CD accounts operate in a similar way. However, you must leave your investment within the bank for a determined period and pay a penalty should you make any withdrawals.

In return, you’ll receive a higher interest rate than you would a standard savings account with the best CD savings accounts rates usually at around the 1.85% mark.

On the other hand, a bigger risk will usually offer a bigger reward and playing the stock market can make big bucks with even small investments. If you choose where to put your money wisely of course.

Analyze up-and-coming markets and what the future holds in terms of industries such as travel and technology as this can often help find where the gold can be.

We’ve all seen how the likes of Erik Finman became a millionaire through investing in Bitcoin. It’s finding the right risk and earning the reward at the right time.

Diversifying Your Investments

While risk can pay off, you should also be aware that it can prove fruitless or lose your money too. That’s why within your investment plan, you should always diversify your investments whether that be with shares across different industries or the investments themselves, so placing funds in savings accounts, in stocks, and in hedge funds.

This way if one particular method fails, or the industry you’ve invested in sees a fall in value, your whole portfolio won’t be affected.

It would be the naive business to lose all your investment money in one fell swoop and of course could take a while to see share prices recover, if they ever do. Be careful, mix up your portfolio with both industries and elements of risk to have the most effective investment strategy.