Take charge of your future

Investing can be intimidating with its jargon, big numbers and fears of losing money – but it doesn’t have to be. The key is to have a plan. As one of the women we interviewed for our book, The Joy of Money, said: “I spend a lot of time earning money and very little time investing it.” Here are some of the key elements of creating your individual investment plan.

Set your financial goals

Setting your personal goals is one thing – these are what are most important to you to achieve in life. They give the motivation – the “why” – for deferring spending now so that you can grow assets for the future.

But before you begin investing, you need