While there are many different vehicles in which to invest, perhaps the vehicle that has the best track record of consistent long-term success is the stock market. And you can invest in the market through direct purchases of stock in several companies, or you can use vehicles such as ETFs (exchange-traded funds) or mutual funds. Both of which have diversified portfolios built-in, with varying exposure to the different industries in the markets, or even some investments in bonds or commodities like oil, gas, or gold.
When you have a time horizon of 10, 20 years or more before you would actually use the money (like, say you are retiring in 30 years, or you just had a baby and so you have 18 years before he or she heads into some kind of higher education), the stock market has had a stellar record of growing at an average rate of 8 percent per year for its history of more than 120 years.
The post The 5 Step Plan for Investment Success originally appeared at I Am 1 Percent.