I am 22, What should be my investment strategy?

Early financial independence and early retirement are completely different. To me, the former is a blessing and the latter is a curse. If you are 22 and thinking of investing your money, kudos to you. It is easier than most people think. Investing is a plan, not a product We often see individuals struggling with investing because they are simply making things too difficult for themselves. This actually applies to any age range as we see a wide range of people struggle with what they are doing. If you’re just planning to start investment, my suggestion is to make it as simple as possible on yourself. Unless you want to invest in individual stocks and know what you’re doing, my suggestion is to start investing in some solid index funds – which are essentially baskets of stocks that track a certain index. The beauty of this approach to investing is that it allows you to invest with the market as opposed to trying to beat the market. Not only should this save you from experiencing the same general whipsaw tendencies of unknowingly going into individual stocks, but it can also potentially help you avoid the high costs associated with trading and bloated mutual funds. Personal Capital is a free tool that allows you to analyze your investments to find lower fee options. The other big key to simplifying your investing is to automate, automate, automate, and then automate some more. This will largely apply outside your 401(k), but automation will help you view your investing as a bill and not something you do when you can get to it. Making your investing simpler can go a long way towards helping your future self with a nice investment portfolio. Take it from someone who is looking back on his twenties.