Investing 101 for the Conservative Beginner!

1. Before even thinking about investing, get your emergency fund in place (typically 6 months of living expenses) that can take care of any unplanned job loss, health issues, home or car or property repairs, etc. and park it in a high yield savings account or CD (certificate of deposit- equivalent of the Indian fixed deposit) or money market account. Look at www.nerdwallet.com for options.
2. If you have debt of any kind with interest rate higher than 8%, pay it off before beginning your investing journey. If you have two debts with similar interest rates and one of them is US based student loan, pay off the student loan as you cannot get saved from it even if you file bankruptcy.
3. Once you have completed steps 1 and 2, you are ready to start your investment journey.
• Check to see if your employer offers a 401K investment plan as a benefit.
• If yes and your employer is matching your 401K contributions, contribute at least up to the match first. This is free money and a 100% interest rate opportunity you should not miss.
• Find out if you have the option of putting your money into a Roth 401K instead of a traditional 401K.  Traditional 401K is most useful for the following:
• Taxable income = Total income minus contributions in Traditional 401K. Hence putting money in a traditional 401K is useful especially if your income is just above the lower end of a tax bracket. Putting money can make you pay taxes corresponding to the lower tax bracket than what you currently qualify for. Check tax brackets for 2015 at: http://www.bankrate.com/finance/taxes/tax-brackets.aspx
• If you are early in your career and have many years for your investments to be compounded over time, put your money into a ROTH 401K rather than a Traditional 401K. This is because in Roth you pay the taxes up-front but never have to pay a single dollar of tax again on the final compounded amount when you retire.
4. If your employer does not offer a 401K, you can open what is called an IRA (Individual Retirement Income). 
• Check out websites like: https://investor.vanguard.com/ira/iras OR https://www.fidelity.com/retirement-ira/overview OR http://www.schwab.com/public/schwab/investing/accounts_products/accounts/ira
• The IRS allows an individual to put $5500 a year into an IRA ($6500 if you are 50yrs or older)
5. Then if you have additional money try to max out your 401K contributions. IRS allows $18000 per person of 401K contributions excluding the company match.
• Some of you may also choose to first pay off your car and personal loans before doing this which is totally fine, but eventually try to move towards maxing out the 401K retirement contributions as the hard work of putting all that money in now, allows it to grow into million dollar retirement nest egg later. And Yes, you can deny it all you want, you will most probably not have a job at the age of 60 and the medical advancements will allow you to live till ~90yrs. So you will need 30yrs of income and that will not come from a lottery or an inheritance but this nest egg you need to create on your own from today.
6. After maxing out your 401K and paying off all loans other than the home loan (which is tax deductible), if there is a child on the way or you want to be ahead of the college tuition game, take advantage of what is called a 529 college savings plan. This further shields tax on contributions as long as the money is used for educational expenses for you or your child or any beneficiary you choose. There are many calculators out there that help estimate what monthly contributions are needed to pay what amount of their college tuition if that is something you want to do. Some helpful links are: http://www.savingforcollege.com/529-savings-vs-loans-calculator/
7. Another very useful place to invest in is a Health Savings Account. Many medical insurer providers or employers offer this as an option you can purchase or comes with a high deductible health insurance plan they offer. Money invested into a HSA as well as any earnings on it is again tax free as long as the money is used for qualified medical expenses.
8. With a solid emergency fund, no high interest rate debt, money invested into tax shielded buckets like 401K, 529, HSA, etc., now any money that you can save up additionally can be put towards eliminating the home mortgage completely. This will take time and discipline, but everyone who has done it has vowed that it liberates the soul to be completely DEBT-FREE!
9. With no debt whatsoever and the compounding investment contributions your money will be working FOR YOU and allow you to retire early and focus on your passions without having to worry about working to survive.

Remember: For whatever retirement investment you choose like the 401K, IRA, 529, HSA, money will eventually have to be invested into mutual funds (Do not invest in individual stocks or bonds). We can discuss how to pick the right mutual funds in another blog post.

Good luck with getting your Investing off the ground towards a debt-free life where you will not only have enough to live a comfortable life but also have the ability to transform others lives with the surplus money!

But remember, this is no easy journey and takes years of dedication, patience, and the passion to build wealth and live within your means like a bumpy star trek journey in slow motion!