Start investing in your 20s

Beginner-level learning path.

This path is for someone earning their first real paychecks who wants to start investing without wading through jargon. It covers the groundwork — emergency fund, high-interest debt, account setup — before any money touches the market, and finishes with a concrete first-purchase checklist.

Lessons

1. Why starting at 22 beats starting at 32 (the real math) — The same $200/month, started ten years apart, ends up more than double — a worked (illustrative, not guaranteed) example of why time beats timing.
2. Emergency fund before you invest a dollar — The cash cushion that keeps a bad month from becoming a forced, badly-timed sale of your investments.
3. Student loans vs. investing: the actual math, not a platitude — A guaranteed return (paying down debt) versus an uncertain one (investing) — the framework, not a one-size-fits-all answer.
4. Opening your first brokerage account — What a brokerage account actually is, the taxable-vs-retirement choice, and the setup mechanics to expect.
5. What to actually buy first: index funds vs. individual stocks — A broad index fund as a built-in diversification starting point, and where individual-stock picks can fit alongside one.
6. Your first purchase: a checklist (and tracking progress after) — A concrete before-you-buy checklist, a healthier way to track progress, and how to verify any tool's claims — including ours.

Investor education only — not investment advice, and never a promise of profit. Every investment can lose value.