Here is my road-map to understanding investing and building a retirement plan for yourself, whether it be through a 401k or any different type of investment offered by your employer or available by banks or brokerage firms. The lessons I offer will teach you step by step, what you need to know or consider before you start investing. By following these simple lessons, you will learn many things, but most importantly it will help you set your objectives and goals and provide you with a clear direction you need to take in order to start investing properly and to help you get started retirement planning. So, follow the lessons in order, they are setup in chronological order (starts with the basics and then gets more detailed).

Here they are:

1. Learn about 401k’s in general and why you should invest.

2. Learn about the importance of Compound Interest and how it can make you money.

3. Learn about diversification and the keys to being successful in all market conditions.

4. Learn about how to make a retirement plan for yourself and family, and how to determine what your risk tolerance is and what approach you will need to take in investing. Determine how much money you will need for retirement.

5. Learn the difference between retirement savings and benefit plans and the different investment types available to different types of workers (government, private companies, individuals not being offered a 401k by their employer, etc.)

6. Learn about the different types of investments you can buy (stocks, bonds, cash, real estate, etc.).

7. Your company doesn’t offer a 401k, no problem. Expanding on lesson 5, detail about plans available to those without a company sponsored 401k plan.

8. Getting down to the details. This lesson talk about how my 401k plan is setup and general rules that can be used to setup your plan (deciding your asset mix).

9. What stocks should I buy discusses how it is impossible for anyone without your details to know if a stock is right for you or not.

10. Mutual funds are what 401k investors must choose from, learn what they are in general here.

11. Mutual funds detailed discusses in depth the various types of funds offered by all mutual funds.

12. Selecting which mutual funds suit your needs best should be fairly simple and straight forward now, with what you have learned. This is how I selected mine.

13. You’ve decided to invest outside of your 401k, and need advice on how to get started. This lesson will touch on the basics of analyzing stocks and bonds.

14. Fundamental Analysis Basics.

15. Technical Analysis Basics.

More lessons to come soon.