I don't know about you bro with just friends and family the most common investing

question I get asked is I just started a new job that 401k people gave me this

hundred page booklet what do I do? Right, exactly. I'm Ricky Mulvey and that's Matt Frankel and Robert Brokemp, two of my colleagues who are importantly

for this show, certified financial planners.

Today's show is for you if you want to start investing,

but maybe a little intimidated by the choices that you have.

Every investor had to start somewhere.

Whether it's a cent a billionaire like Warren Buffett or just one of the thousands of Americans who retire every day,

these folks had to take an initial step to get on the road to financial independence.

And that first step usually begins by opening an investment account.

Sounds easy, but if you're relatively new to investing, the choices and the terminology

can be a bit perplexing.

But have no fear because we're here to highlight

four steps to opening your first account.

And it all starts with step number one, decide the purpose and time frame of the account.

Investors today certainly have a lot more choice than we did when we were getting started,

right, bro? That is definitely true. When I opened my first investment account I think there might have been like four

choices there was TD Ameritrade E-Trade it was it was so long ago it wasn't even

called TD Ameritrade then but but there were like four choices.

It was, and they all were pretty much the same in terms of how you entered orders, what

commissions they charged, and everything like that.

So a couple of things. First decide the purpose of the

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