Matt and Matt team up again for another Q&A episode, this time focused on how to get started with investing. Matt Murphy clarifies basic investing terms you need to know, such as stocks and equities, bonds and fixed income, and lays out the basic roadmap for investing through your lifetime. The key word with all things investing: patience. Results (wealth) from investing come from repeated good decisions over a period of many years. The process can be very simple, but for many it is difficult to remain calm and stick to your plan when the markets take a dive (which they will at some point) and the media is fear mongering about the stock market. Likewise, it's easy to chase trends and hot tips, only to be the one who bought high and sold low with a particular investment.

Matt also explains the basics of asset allocation, choosing the right mix of stocks and bonds to fit your personal risk profile and your position in life. Asset allocation for a young person likely will lean heavily, perhaps entirely, into stocks, because a young person has a long time horizon for investing and can withstand year to year fluctuations in the stock market. On the other hand, someone nearing retirement needs to know that the value of their portfolio won't vary substantially, since they will be planning to withdraw from that portfolio for living expenses in retirment. That person will likely invest more heavily in bonds, which pay a fixed interest rate and whose value fluctuates much less than stocks.

This is part one of three in this mini-investing series -- in the following episodes Matt will dive deeper into the types of investment accounts, how to pick investments for your portfolio and how to maintain them over time.

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