What's recommended for someone who is starting out? All the places I've talked to don't want to touch you if you have less than ten thousand in starting cash.
I worked at a place that didn't want to touch you if you had less than $500,000.
Quite honestly, you don't need them.
People at investment advisory firms are ABSOLUTELY more knowledgeable than the average person and know how to get better returns, but there are strict regulations on how investment advisory firms can recommend investments, and these regulations don't favor higher returning investments.
Investment advisory firms exist to help older people with businesses that make them hundreds of thousands a year get safe 7-10 percent returns because they already have a lot of money and just want it to safely grow. In other words, they deal in safety and security.
Just learn basic investing concepts like diversification and have a decent understanding of how to tell whether or not a stock will be a good performer. Also check out if your local library has access to ValueLine - some libraries have a subscription to it, and its a $1,700 investing information platform, and its one of the best.
Here are some of my favorite personal tips for alternative investments and revenue streams:
1) Don't ignore taxes. A conversion of $1,000 of taxable income into tax free income has a 20% return from an average person, or anywhere from 10 to 40 percent depending on if you're in a working to upper middle class tax bracket.
2) Invest in IRAs and ROTHs. Everyone should use both liberally. Both have their advantages - IRAs reduce your current taxable income, any money put in a ROTH will NEVER be taxed. You can also convert IRAs to ROTHs, and it can sometimes be very advantageous to do so.
3) If you have the time and live in an area where its possible, create a farm. Do something easy like chickens, garlic, or sweet potatoes.
Indeed, chickens and sweet potatoes are probably the best. You will produce a decent amount of food, easily enough for you to never have to buy eggs or sweet potatoes again, and you can sell the excess.
You can also write off the loss from the farm, and this can be quite tax advantaged.
This is also good if you believe there might be food shortages.
4) If you truly believe some kind of disaster might happen, invest in guns/bullets. In a worse case scenario they are way better than gold or silver.
5) Create a small business where you can make a decent profit and write off some everyday expenses too. Woodworking, plumbing, painting, renovating cheap washers/dryers/whatever you got off of craigslist. You can write off the tools, part of your phone bill and internet bill, some of your home space for inventory if applicable, a computer, whatever. (these can also be helpful if you actually want to invest in real estate - you can develop the skills necessary to do work on your own properties, potentially saving you substantial amounts of money).
6) Self publish a book. What you have to remember is that if its competently written and edited and has a decent story, its better than 95% of what's been written.
In areas like romance, mystery, and thrillers, there is high demand and self publishing is even practically dominant over traditional in those areas.
If you are a decent writer and can discipline yourself to write good quality work in shorter periods of time, the royalties can become a decent investment.
7) Have a good understanding of the time value of money. I can't stress this enough. A lot of people don't properly understand it.
Let me give an example: is it cheaper to buy a car for $6,000, or to borrow $6,000 at 4% interest to buy a car?
The answer is, of course, that it's cheaper to borrow, because instead of paying the $6,000 to buy it, you could invest it at a rate of 10% return quite easily, and then pay down the 4% interest loan.
Or for example, think about the difference between paying for a $90 a month family YMCA membership or spending $20,000 on a pool and exercise equipment. Sure, you own the pool and exercise equipment forever.... but you could get a return of $2,000 a year on that money, which is far more than the $1,080 cost of the YMCA membership.
A gym membership is almost always a great deal
if you're actually using it. This is true of a lot of memberships and subscriptions, actually.
8) Become a licensed real estate agent if you plan on investing in real estate; there are significant tax advantages to having a real estate agent license, and you can potentially get some of the money back from a sale if you are representing yourself.
Overall? Focus on creating streams of income that you have control over and that are unlikely to be lost. Be self dependent, and live below your means. Pursue alternative work that provides supplementary income.
