Your journey toward financial success begins as soon as you understand and employ the four basic principles that are central to the BetterInvesting philosophy.

• Invest regularly—success is based on a long-term outlook
• Reinvest all your earnings—its like turbocharging your investment
• Invest in quality growth companies—Once you know what to look for, they're easy to spot
• Diversify to reduce risk—They can't all be winners, so protect yourself with diversification

Remember, long-term financial success is not a sprint to the finish. Slow, steady growth is your ultimate goal, and the BetterInvesting philosophy will help you set the right pace.

Finding Your Path
But before you begin, you'll need to be able to make an informed decision about which path is the right one for you. As the leader in investment education, BetterInvesting and the community of investors behind it, can help. The three most basic paths to follow are listed below.

Mutual Funds
At its most basic, a Mutual Fund is an opportunity for groups of people to pool their resources into professionally managed portfolios of stocks or bonds or both. You can use the BetterInvesting Mutual Fund Resource Center to help determine which Funds are right for your journey.

Stocks
Simply put, a share of stock is literally a share of ownership in a company. One share usually represents a very small portion of ownership which allows you certain privileges. BetterInvesting has several tools like the Stock Selection Guide (SSG) and the Stock Check List (SCL) designed to help you make stock purchase, ownership, and sale less intimidating.

Personal Finance
Obviously, not all of your investment money can go into Stocks and Mutual Funds. If you work for a company with a 401K plan, or are setting money aside in a college fund, or are looking to purchase a house your investment opportunities may be very different. Fortunately, membership in BetterInvesting also provides you access to articles, courses and information that will help you down these paths as well!