Those who make marketing their number one focus in life are often playing catch-up when it comes to financial planning. Our minds are zeroed-in on communications strategies, creative approaches, and brand building. Generally speaking, we aren’t interested in how to put money to work unless it involves investing in outreach.

However, the majority of working-class Americans need to be investing for retirement from an early age. If they don’t, their money won’t have the ability to compound over time, causing them to have to work once in their retirement years. The good news is that there are a lot of great financial vehicles that will assist you in your retirement. In the end, you choose the game you want to play. In this article, I am going to be going over a few different investment options like mutual funds vs stocks and real estate.

Individual Stocks

Individual stock investing is when you purchase one or more of a company’s stock in hopes that it will grow in value. Now, there are two types of stocks: dividend stocks and growth stocks. Growth stocks are stocks that you invest in hopes that they will go up over time. These types of stocks are things like Amazon, Alphabet, Apple, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Dividend stocks are stocks that pay out a percentage every quarter to its shareholders.

As far as investing is concerned, there are many different ways and strategies you can go about buying stock. You can become an active investor in the markets by opening up a brokerage account and day trading or swing trading in the market. You could also use a commission-free platform like Robinhood and buy and hold the stock over time. If you want to, you can meet with a financial advisor and he can put some stocks in your Roth IRA.

Mutual Funds

A mutual fund is an investment fund comprised of many stocks, securities, and other investments. Essentially, a group of investors pool their money together to buy these investments. When all of these investments go up year after year, all of the people in that fund benefit.

Mutual funds are beneficial because they are typically well diversified. Some big mutual funds out there are Vanguard, Fidelity, and the S&P 500 ETF which is the single largest mutual fund out there. Because these mutual funds tend to be very diverse, they tend to pose a lower risk but they also provide a lower return. However, an IRA filled with good growth stock mutual funds can make a very big difference when retirement comes along.

Real Estate

Ah, good ole hard assets. The main reason why real estate is such a good investment is that it is a hard asset. In other words, there isn’t much you can do to change its intrinsic value. Everyone is going to need a place to live regardless of how well or bad the economy is doing. This is why rental properties are the big talk nowadays.

If you are anything like Grant Cardone, you are going to like the multifamily real estate. Some investors only like single-family homes. It really depends on your investment style. On average, you will see a 10% return on your money every year from these properties. That means that in 10 years, your property will be fully paid for and provide passive cash flow every month. Even though real estate is one of the safest investments out there, you still need to put in the work to maintain and upkeep the property for your tenants.

Every business person should consider investment opportunities as a way to secure their future. Investment is inherently risky, but the risk doesn’t need to be reckless. Careful choices and responsible decision making are key to long-term investment success. This is true regardless of the kind of investment you’re making.