by Catlin Hogan

Created on: August 06, 2008

Many people who do not follow the markets on a regular basis, see picking stocks like picking a horse at the race track, but regardless of this, investment is still important. Whether you are picking one or two small equities to generate some extra income, putting away a certain amount each month toward RRSP's or RESP's, or if you are looking to become the next Warren Buffet, the stock markets can be your friend, instead of your worst enemy.

If you are looking to make a bit of extra income, there is the traditional high interest savings account, but the banks will eat away at your hard earned savings with their service charges. If you look at investing, and are looking at little to no risk, you could be seeing income and net worth gains; while they may be small figures, they are certain to grow. The saying is true, low risk equals low reward while higher risk does have the chance of higher reward, but also the chance of higher losses.

In Canada, the Canadian Pension Plan is in about the same condition as Social Security in the United States; if you are in your teens or in your twenties or even in your thirties, unless there are serious changes made to the entitlement programs, they will be bankrupt by the time these age groups reach retirement. Once students are done high school or university, even if they only put in $30 a month, by the time these people are forty, they will have saved up roughly $7,200 on an estimated twenty five per cent increase; but obviously if they can afford more, it would be wise to put in whatever you can afford.

If you are looking to become the next Warren Buffet, you could be looking at a long road of ups and downs. Many consider Warren Buffet to be an absolute genius when it comes to the stock markets. As mentioned above, if you are looking for high reward, you equally face the possibility of higher losses too. Of the three reasons to invest, this should be the last reason you decide to invest. If you hope to do the traditional buy low, sell high strategy, consider starting small. By starting small, you only get small returns of course, but after a $10 reward one week, you can take that $10 and perhaps turn it into $100 over the month.

With these options, you can be sure that you will be looking at a bit of extra worth and even a bit of extra cash later on in your years. If you try some of the things listed above and you enjoy doing it, you can always do it for a living if you are looking to choose a career or perhaps start a new one; you can always study economics in university and there are some equity trading firms that will do training for their agents who have no previous experience in the economic industry.

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