I'm a young full time Internet Marketer...Should I invest in retirement funds, IRAs, Stocks...

Also, at what point should you set up an LLC or some similar business entity instead of just running everything as a sole proprietor?

investing can be a good thing if you're smart about it. My family started with stocks from the 60s solely to fund college(first in my family in over 5 generations to go to college). Your kids and grandkids will thank you later.

WOW I bet your glad you didn't invest in an IRA today, I don't recall exactly but the news reported the average account lost something like $10k

Get some counseling, I know there are some accounts that offer big tax deferred tax advantages. I suppose those market fluctuation aren't as scary when your 40 years out.

I'd look at high priced stocks like Apple and Google that probably won't be going anywhere anytime soon and are increasing consistently. Wait until a large compnay gets a bit of negative press and buy as much stock as possible when the price is down.

LLCs are necessary if you want to sell off shares of your business or may be liable for something when conducting business. I don't think there is a limit to the money you can make with a sole proprietor so you could probably stick with that for quite awhile if you don't have any of the previous concerns.

It is a great idea to get involved with saving for retirement at a young age. Compounding interest is definitely on your side if you start investing for retirement before 30.

You do want to invest part of your earning in something
that historically increases in value. What is best for you
depends upon lots of things, including your tolerance for
risk.

Conditions do change though, so what is making your lots
of money today could suddenly stop working, and if you have
diversified, it's not such a big deal.

Willie

A virtual high five to you for thinking about this at such a young age, that shows a kind of financial maturity that many older adults don't have. I should know, I used to have my own financial planning practice and have counseled thousands of people with their retirement and estate planning.

You definitely want to start investing your money in a some kind of trust where you get tax benefits (like a Roth IRA, SIMPLE IRA, SEP-IRA or QRP (Keogh), Individual 401(k)), assuming you live in the USA. However, there are many different financial philosophies. Ultimately, you will want to do what's right for you for YOUR specific situation.

While you can do this yourself, you should at least interview a couple of financial planners who have been in business for at least ten years and are not heavily biases toward only one style of investing. I would recommend going to one that is fee-based only so they aren't thinking about how much commissions they are going to make from the investments and insurance they will recommend to you.

Any competent financial planner is going to ask you a lot of questions such as:

* What do you want to accomplish in your life?
* What kind of lifestyle do you want?
* At what age do you want to retire? (Your time horizon)
* How much risk are you comfortable with? (Risk tolerance).
* How much debt do you have?
* Do you own any property?
* How are you protecting your assets? (Personal and business).
* If you were to become disabled would you be able to maintain your current life style?
* If you were to die how would that impact your family and business financially?
* Do you have an exit strategy for your business?
* Do you have any intellectual property? If so, how are you protecting it?
* Do you have health insurance?

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Depending on your income and where you live, you should be able to set up a personal retirement account such as an IRA or Roth-IRA as well as a business retirement account. There are also other types of investments that can give you significant tax shelters. Diversification is key to spreading out your risk. I can't tell you how many clients had a good chunk of their wealth in a handful of stocks and it was not a pretty sight when the market would take a dive.

You should look into forming a C-Corp, S-Corp, or LLC, depending on what kind of business you run, what kind of tax advantages you want, etc. Talk to competent attorney that specializes in this; again, make sure they have done this for at least ten years and are willing to give you some of their time to interview them.

You can do all these things yourself, of course, but it will take a lot of reading and research. At the very least it's good to get a few opinions from a few professionals to help you make a more informed decision. Over the years I have learned that for most people, consulting with a financial planner is an eye-opening experience. It can be sobering for people because many people simply don't know what they don't know.

I don't know your specific situation, but at the very least you can open up a ROTH IRA with a company like Vanguard, and start dollar cost average a certain dollar amount (up to the maximum) every single month into an index fund for the next 20, 30, or 40 years. =)

Good luck to you,

RoD

Of course it's important to start re-investing part of your savings towards the future. That being said, asking for investment advise on a public forum is not a good idea. You want to talk to an expert man.

I highly recommend saving and investing at an early age...

Also read Rich dad poor dad if you have not yet

Cheers,

~Gary