The first step in beginning your journey is deciding how much to invest.

How much you should invest depends on your investment goal and when you need to reach it. One common investment goal is retirement. As a general rule of thumb, you want to aim to invest a total of 10% to 15% of your income each year for retirement.

Post picking an investment option, it is important to craft an investment strategy depending on your saving goals, how much money you need to reach them and your time horizon.

If your savings goal is more than 20 years away, almost all of your money can be in stocks. But picking specific stocks can be complicated and time-consuming, so for most people, the best way to invest in stocks is through low-cost stock mutual funds, index funds or ETFs.

Diversification is considered to be the only free lunch in investing. As a beginner investor, by investing in a range of assets, you reduce the risk of one investment’s performance severely hurting the return of your overall investment. You could think of it as financial jargon for “Don’t put all of your eggs in one basket.” It is integral in imbibing diversification as the soul of your portfolio.