It is said that millennials can’t afford to buy their own houses because they spend most of their money on unnecessary and expensive things, like avocado toasts. However, the reason why we don’t invest money in real estate or even for our retirement may be more obvious. We often work jobs that cannot offer us any benefits or a 401(k), and we struggle to make ends meet every month. And then at some point we realize that we are in our 30s and we should start investing some time ago.

Thankfully, there are people who can help us in deciding how to do it, like Sallie Krwcheck, the CEO and co-founder of Ellevest. It is a website, which is really helpful for women who want to start investing, but don’t really know how to do it.
Sallie studied journalism, but after graduating from college she has ended up on Wall Street, as a research analyst. She didn’t know much about investing, but as it turned out it isn’t as hard as we all think. Only the jargon used by experts from Wall Street may be confusing, and once we get what it is all about, it isn’t complicated at all.

As a matter of fact, both men and women don’t understand investing, but men are not discouraged by that and they still invest, while women waste time to figure it out. What is more, we often think that investing is only for rich people, which is obviously not true. We just need to take some basic steps.

First of all, we need to pay down our credit-card debt and student-loan debt. Then, we need to put aside some cash, and it should be at least the amount of our monthly pay. And after that, choose the amount of money that you will invest every month, approximately it should be 10 % of your salary. You can put them into IRA or 401(k), or if you have some plans for nearer future, you can invest in non-retirement account. In such situation, you should go to a firm which is a fiduciary, and ask to be put in a diversified investment portfolio.

In general, in case of long-term goals, it is better idea to be more in equities, that guarantee higher return. But for shorter-term goals, bonds are what you should be in.

Forget about the money you didn’t invest in the past, as you cannot change it. Start investing now! If not this week, do it next week, as you shouldn’t waste any more of your time and money.