When we think of the different ways of investing money most of us think in terms of the stock market but there are plenty of other types of investment to consider. For example you could choose gold or any other precious metal, real estate, Certificates of Deposit or even old automobiles. Your choice is limited only by your imagination and of course the depth of your pockets! Understanding The Stock Market 101 If you are looking to get started with investing in stocks and shares you really need to get to grips with understanding the stock market. While you don't need to become an expert or have an in depth knowledge you certainly need at the very least a basic understanding. With monthly savings they could consider looking at mutual funds as these will allow them to get a taste for the stock market while sharing the risks and rewards with others. They can begin their portfolio with as little as $25 per month to find out if it's something that suits them. For those who have decided that they would like to go for the full blooded approach of buying stocks and shares directly they need to have between $3,000 and $5,000 if they want to use a full service stock broker. Two things that you need to look at is the interest rate itself, which will be mentioned clearly on the website and the maturity period. The simple math here is that if the maturity period is longer, then the total interest you earn needs to be higher. The interest rate itself may not be higher, but the total interest earned should be. The next step in getting started is to make certain that you understand the need to leave your money invested for a reasonable period of time. That should really be no less than five years in spite of any overnight success stories you may have heard. Markets fluctuate and at times they can be very volatile. The Dutch as leaders in this new field soon began to develop some of the financial instruments that we are all still familiar with today. They introduced things such as traded options, short selling, unit trusts and even debt-equity swaps which were revolutionary at the time. After the early success of those Dutch pioneers other countries soon began to see how they could copy this new trading model.