As a beginner, investing might be overwhelming as there are various options to invest in. Three options available for beginners include:

Stocks: ownership of companies’ shares

Exchange-Traded Funds, or ETFs: funds that can be invested in different things, including a portfolio of shares

Cryptocurrencies: digital currencies

To choose an investment plan, it is essential to set a budget plan about how much and how often you ideally would invest. This plan is dependent on your income, expenses, savings, any standing debt that you have and your risk appetite.

Before starting to invest, you should think about whether you want to do it for the short-term or long-term.

As a short-term investor, you will usually hold an investment between a few days and a year to generate profit off of liquid financial assets — assets that can easily be bought and sold. As a short-term investor, you more actively follow your investments. You might invest in younger companies with a higher growth potential, such as stocks of young technology and healthcare companies, in order to maximize your profit. However, as much as these investments can generate high returns, they carry a larger risk given that they have not existed for a long time and have not yet proven themselves strong. Hence, they also expose you to the risk of a higher loss.

However, as a long-term investor, you hold investments for a longer period of over a year and focus on building a strategic portfolio. Your investments would certainly include liquid assets. However, you own a larger number of investments with lower volatility. These could be old and stable growth companies such as Procter & Gamble, Google and Amazon. You may also own illiquid assets, such as real estate — land, properties, plants, equipment and so on — as they also generate slow but steady returns.

Are you willing to risk it for a large win, or would you prefer to stay on the safe side and minimize risks? Risk-loving investors are likely to prefer a portfolio that is highly weighted on high-risk investments with a low percentage of their portfolio made in bonds, which are considered relatively safe. This is because investing in individual stocks means you are buying ownership in a company and can make money either from the stock’s price appreciation or dividends. That being said, you are at risk since your returns depend on the company’s performance.

If you are a risk-averse investor, you might opt for a portfolio that is weighted more on a mixture of assets. Having a diverse portfolio allows you to manage your portfolio’s risk and reduce the volatility of price movements in the markets, which is highly desirable for risk-averse investors.

Regardless of the type of investments and assets that you choose, it is essential to diversify your portfolio to balance the risks and rewards of the assets in your portfolio.

Stocks vary in volatility depending on their age and the industry they are in. Stocks in energy (coal, gas, oil), commodities and new technologies are more volatile than healthcare and fast-moving consumer goods, also known as FMCGs. Usually beta — a measurement of the investment’s volatility of returns relative to the entire market — is a good indicator of risk. This factors the age of the stock (which affects volatility in earnings) and the industry it operates in (tourism, for instance, is more volatile than staples).

Exchange-Traded Funds, or ETFs, are diversified combinations of various investment assets including a portfolio of stocks or commodities that can easily be sold and bought like stocks on exchanges. The value of an ETF represents all underlying investments that are being held by the ETF. Since the number of investments in ETFs, such as the S&P 500, QQQ and VGT, change daily, their market price is more stable than that of individual stocks. .

Cryptocurrencies are considered to have risks, such as hacks and security vulnerabilities. Due to the limited supply of coins in cryptocurrencies — for instance, Bitcoin at 21 million and Ethereum at 18 million — many investors consider cryptocurrencies to be like gold with an increasing value in the long run. By using cryptocurrency, you avoid the higher fees of credit cards and can conduct some transactions with more security using smart contracts that are available on the blockchain.

Ready to get started? Below are some of the platforms that you can use to open an account and start investing. One thing to keep in mind is that many brokerage apps require a U.S. bank account and a Social Security Number. Only U.S. citizens, U.S. permanent residents and NYUAD students who took a campus job or paid internship in the U.S. have an SSN.

If you do not have an SSN, however, there still are a few options. Here are two platforms that allow for residents of specified countries to open an account:

eToro: Offered in over 60 countries across the globe, eToro is a popular platform among non-U.S. citizens. The trading products include ETFs, stocks, indices and cryptocurrencies. Although there is no specific commission, a minimum of 25 U.S. dollars is required to invest in any cryptocurrency, and the minimum deposit for many regions can reach up to 200 U.S. dollars. One downside is that fractional shares (more on this later) are not supported. The interface itself is not complicated, and stocks can be traded with a tap of a button.

Interactive Brokers (Lite): Initially targeted at advanced investors, Interactive Brokers has launched a new branch, IBKR Lite, for more casual investors. The lite version does not require a minimum deposit or a commission, but it has retained the wide range of investment options from its counterpart, offering stocks, bonds, mutual funds — a type of fund pooled from various investors to be invested — and fractional shares. The downside is that its interface is relatively more complex than other apps.

For SSN holders, the following are the top two commission-free platforms to consider:

Robinhood: If you can’t afford the 1,800 U.S. dollar Google shares, fractional investing may be the way to go. One characteristic of Robinhood is its “fractional shares,” or ability to invest without paying for a full share, making it friendly for student investors with low funds on hand. The app’s selection of investments includes stocks, ETFs and cryptocurrencies. The platform is also free and accessible through its user-friendly mobile app. The charts, reports and analysis ratings are easy to read and the interface is simple and sleek.

M1 Finance: M1 Finance allows users to build customized portfolios from an array of firms or opt for premixed expert portfolios for free. If you’re only starting out and are unsure of how to select your funds, this might be a good place to start. Additionally, there is no minimum deposit required, and fractional shares are also supported. However, not many research and charting resources that other brokerage apps like TD Ameritrade offer are available.

With goals of future financial stability or gaining knowledge of current affairs and business, investing is a great way to jumpstart your career!