5 Benefits of Learning to Invest in College

Learning to Invest in College

If you are in college and are curious about the way the finance world works, then you may as well start taking some classes on campus where you can learn all about how to invest your money. Most students don’t think about the stock market while they are in college, but by the time they are ready to invest, they have to teach themselves the ins and outs of investing. If you’re not a numbers person to begin with, then consider these 5 benefits of learning to invest in college.

  1. Rainy Day Fund

While you’re in college, your cash flow may be relatively constant, and therefore, you don’t need to have much backup. However, when you get out in the workforce, you’re going to find that your income will often be rocky at first. You may have to take on multiple part-time or temporary jobs to string together enough income to make ends meet, and if your cash flow isn’t constant, then you’re going to have to know how to build a nest egg.

Learning to Invest in College

  1. Comprehensive Education

College is the best time to start learning how to invest because it is where you will get the best education about the stock market. Once you’re finished with college, you will have to teach all of this stuff to yourself, and while it’s definitely possible, you will probably learn a lot of your lessons the hard way. If you want to really learn the ins and the outs of stocks, bonds, CDs, and winning investment strategies, then you’re going to have to take a course at a reputable college, like Northeastern University.

  1. Start retirement early

One of the best things about learning how to invest is that you can start your retirement fund early. You don’t need to find a full-time job with a company in order to get your retirement going, you can get it started yourself, and you can learn a bit about the stock market in the process. Most people don’t start thinking about their retirement until they’re closer to retirement age than college age. By then they only have a short time left to save, but with interest, they could have easily accrued at least 700% more money had they started in their 20s.

  1. Prevent Getting Scammed

Those who don’t educate themselves about finance and investing, whether in college courses or through independent study, are some of the easiest to scam for all the dishonest stockbrokers out there. The truth of the matter is, there are a lot of stockbrokers who know how to make themselves money, whether or not they do a good job for you as an investor. If you want to reduce the chance of getting scammed by one of these unscrupulous investors, then you need to educate yourself.

  1. Time is Always on Your Side

The earlier you learn how to invest, the better, because if you are investing in low-risk, standard stocks, then you will see a slow but undeniably steady increase in your balance, and the more time that you have to build that stash, the more staggering the return will be. They say that if you put $5000 into a Roth IRA as a 16-year-old, and never put any money in there again, you would have almost $200,000 by your retirement.