Investing wisely can reap benefits for a long time, but deciding where - and how - to start investing can be confusing. There are stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. Huge brokerage firms, or web sites that you let invest on your own. Short-term and long-term investments.

Start by determining your goals, such as buying a vacation home, retiring at 40, or paying for your children's educations. Your goals will largely determine your risk level. Next, decide how involved you want to be with your investments. Do you want to invest your money and not think about it for months, or check it daily and make changes?

Now, it's time to decide whether you're going to use a full-service broker, or use a web site to buy and sell. You can compare brokers online to choose the one that best meets your needs. After you decide on a broker, do your research to determine what you're going to invest in.

- Mutual funds are collections of stocks. Since mutual funds are diversified, if one company's stock plummets, it won't hurt your investment as much as if you had put all of your money in that one stock. On the other hand, if a company's stock skyrockets, you won't see as high of a return as you would have had if all of your money was in that one stock. Of course, there are other pros and cons to mutual funds, too.

- Owning stock lets you own a sliver of a company without having to go to work every day while sharing in the ups and downs of the company.

- The third common type of investment is a bond. Bonds are seen as fairly safe investments because each year, you'll receive an amount of money that was determined when the bond was sold. If you hold a bond to maturity date, you'll receive your initial investment, plus interest. There is a slight risk with bonds, though. Non-federal government bonds carry the risk (usually very slight) of default.

Now you're armed with enough information to start investing in your future.