It's never too late to start investing.

A11

Hanne Armstrong

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We all, to a greater or lesser extent, need money. Some of us want more than we need, some need more than we have. Most of us try to save a little, or would even like to see what money we do have, grow a little. So, what next? A savings account? Investment? And in what?

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"What you do with your money depends on your goals," says Réjean Després. "If you're saving for a vacation next summer you should probably open a savings account. But if you're saving for a home down payment 10 years down the road, then you might consider a long-term investment for greater returns."

Réjean is the investment sales manager for New Brunswick and P.E.I. with BMO Bank of Montreal.

Dereck Slattery, a financial consultant with IPC Investment Corporation, agrees.

"I never advise investing unless the client has about five years for the money to work. If it's money you'll need in the next few years, go with a savings account."

All right. A savings account for that trip next summer, and even for the boat you're planning to buy in a couple of years. Unless you're absolutely sure you know what you're doing, playing the stock market for a quick profit isn't a good idea. But both Dereck and Réjean recommend starting long-term investments as early as you can.

"If you can, start investing when in your twenties, before your life gets financially complicated with family and other commitments," says Dereck. "Mutual funds are often a good way to go."

"Mutual funds are good long-term investments," agrees Réjean. "They can be safe-, medium-, or high-risk, depending on your circumstances. You're not locked in, and you can check the fluctuations of your fund in the paper or on the Internet. Historically, over the long-term, they always go up."

Here's a scenario set up by Réjean: At 20, you start putting $100 per month into a mutual fund. By the time you're 55, you will have invested $42,000. At a projected eight per cent rate of interest, your total earnings at that time will be $187,388.25. If you want to cash out at that point, you're looking at a total of $229,388.25.

For the same return over a 10-year period, your monthly investment would have to jump to $1,253.00 per month.

What about land, or real estate?

"In Moncton there isn't a squeeze for land yet," replies Dereck. "I wouldn't speculate on land here, and you'd have the expense of taxes, fencing, and whatever until you sell it."

"Some people think buying a piece of land is less risky because it's real," says Réjean, "but if you think about buying one piece of land, or diversifying in a mutual fund, the level of risk is lower through diversification. There are real estate mutual funds, and you don't have to collect rent or pay management costs. Real property is a lot more work than mutual funds."

Some people, though, enjoy the work of nursing their investments along. Not for the faint of heart, it can be a creative as well as a business process.

Rosalind Miller owns Studio 7 Hundred, the McSweeney Company Dinner Theatre, and Kramer's Corner. Earnings are reinvested back into her businesses.

"In the hospitality industry you have to be updating and shifting focuses to cater to your clients all the time," she explains. "The minute you stagnate, you're finished, so money is constantly reinvested."

All right, but that's reinvesting. What about the original decision to invest in a business rather than, for instance, mutual funds?

"I started working in this industry when I was 14," Rosalind says. "I worked for years for minimum wage and lived off my tips. Then I had a few management positions, and ended up as a general manager. The business owner whom I worked for gave me some financial backing, and went with me to the bank. That's how I became the owner of my own business; I had some one who believed in me."

For Rosalind, it was her experience, skill and talent in an industry which were her own investments in her business undertaking. Her financial backing was specific to her business, not to generalized investments in stocks or funds.

Where does that leave you, though, as you ponder how to make your money grow?

If you have the cash or a backer, and a determination to be your own boss no matter how long the hours and great the risk, investing in your own business may work for you.

If that's out of your reach or skill-set, then speaking to a financial consultant is probably your best route. They will work with you to come up with an investment strategy that will work for you. If you have a little extra money every month that you're not going to need in the next few years, it's never too soon to start making it work for you.