You can go through your entire life convinced you don’t have the
time, knowledge or
money to invest. But you’d be wrong.

Robert Brannen, a Gwinnett County agent with the University of
Georgia Extension
Service, won’t accept excuses.

An economist by training, Brannen believes in some simple, do-in-
yourself investing.
He’s not a financial advisor and doesn’t claim to have all the
answers. But he does have
a little advice for the reluctant savers.

“There are two ways to make money,” Brannen said, “by people
doing work or the
money doing the work. Many people have second jobs and others
have wondered if
they should get one. I consider investing as my second job.”

The numbers are convincing enough. If you start putting aside
around $220 a month at
age 35, with just a 10 percent return, you’ll have more than
$500,000 by the time
you’re 65. If you wait until age 50 to start investing, the
monthly savings you’ll need
to accumulate the same amount at 65 leaps to $1,100.

Brannen’s message: don’t wait.

Even a small investment each month becomes substantial with time
and compounding –
what Brannen calls the eighth wonder of the world. With
compounding, you earn
money on the interest you earned.

“It’s the Rule of 72,” Brannen said. “If you invest $1 at 1
percent compound interest,
in 72 years you’ll have $2. So 72 divided by the interest rate
equals the number of
years you’ll double your money. The stock market has never
dipped under 10.5 percent
average gain in any 10-year period. So it’s not unreasonable to
expect to double your
investment.”

Brannen’s chosen form of investing is mutual funds. Mutual funds
invest your money
in sometimes hundreds of companies or bonds or securities. They
lower the risk of
investing in one stock or security. You delegate tough
investment decisions to the
fund’s professional money managers.

“In the world of investing, mutual funds are the foundation,”
Brannen said. “They have
full-time money managers. You pick your level of risk, and your
investments are
diversified.

“It’s easy to invest in mutual funds, too,” he said. “With 7,000
funds to choose from,
you’ll find one that’s right for you with just a little
research.”

Brannen checks financial magazines that compare funds. He checks
the company’s
history of returns, how long the manager has been on the job,
minimum investment,
any charges and their investment objectives. If a fund sounds
good, he calls for a
prospectus and studies it for more details.

Still not convinced? If you average making around $33,000 a year
over your entire
career, it would add up to more than $1 million in 30 years.

“What are you doing with that money?” he said. “Put some of it
to work for you.”