After pompously declaring last week that financial experts featured on endless media relays really don't know much, if anything at all, that can be relevant to your individual situation, I've carefully managed to put my foot into my own mouth.

Since I've virtuously extolled that I may know a bit more than the experts about your situation - and your local investment environment - I must now present a few ideas on some good basic investment strategies.

It is always a hurdle to think about investments, especially, if you don't feel confident about your ability to pick what may be best for you. Mutual funds still are a highly favored choice, but even selecting brand names and types that will be suitable for your situation is never that easy as even the experts have to do some research given that there are around 60,000 mutual fund selections worldwide.

Cost, fees and meeting the minimum investment amounts to open an investment account are also a hindering factor. You can choose low cost, low fee mutual funds with manageable thresholds for entry investing, however, but let's start with one of the easiest types of funds to own.

The final and crucial financial planning questions before you invest are:

1. What do you need this money for?

2. How long can you keep it invested?

3. Do you have enough additional savings, so that you can allow this investment to grow through a full market cycle, anywhere from 5-8 years?

If your answers to 1 are, a future goal such as college savings, wealth building, or retirement; 2 - at least three years; 3 - yes, I have an emergency fund that I keep topped up, then you can give yourself permission to invest.

Stick to simplistics - a plain vanilla index fund, such as the S&P 500 is always a great place to start. Why? Low management and administration fees, passive long-term capital appreciation. No need to wonder what you next move is, just let the index go with the market.

What is the S&P index? Wikipedia states that "The S&P 500 is an index containing the stocks of 500 Large-Capitalised (in excess of 10 billion dollars of company capital) corporations, most of which are American.

"All of the stocks in the index are those of large publicly held companies and trade on the two largest US stock markets, the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq. After the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500 is the most widely watched index of large-cap US stocks. It is considered to be a bellwether for the US economy and is a component of the Index of Leading Indicators.

"Many mutual index funds track the performance of the S&P 500 by holding the same stocks as the index, in the same proportions, and thus attempting to match its performance (before fees and expenses).

"In stock and mutual fund performance charts, the S&P 500 index is often used as a baseline for comparison, with the performance of the target stock or fund overlaid on the S&P chart."

There you have it, very easy to understand. Go to Wikipedia and look this up. You can see the actual list of all the stocks in this index. Play a guessing game and see how many of them you know, by linking them to products that you buy. You will be amazed!

Performance:

The S&P has grown exponentially in the last 30 years, with an average annual growth rate of around 10%. Note that the key here is long-term growth.

Where can you find S&P index mutual funds? Vanguard is a terrific website to start with because they are famous for their low cost index funds, but virtually all major brand mutual fund companies offer index funds. Vanguard's annual fee for some of these passively tracked funds (remember, no active manager to pay) is about 0.25 of one percent per year (one quarter of one percent). You may not be able to open an on-line account from here, however, but you can shop local financial institutions to see what they offer that is similar.

How much should you invest? That depends upon how much you can afford to put away for that rainy day ten years hence. Best advice is to start small, and contribute regularly to your new investment fund.

But remember - markets move up and move down, but over the long-term if you have the patience to wait and keep investing, the S&P has experienced appreciable growth.

Keep investing simple, but simply start investing now!

Martha Harris Myron, CPA-NH1929, CFP®-67184 (US licenses) is a dual citizen (US and Bermuda). She is a Senior Wealth Manager at Argus Financial Limited, specializing in comprehensive financial solutions and investment advisory services for individual private clients and their families, business owners, endowments and trusts. DirectLine: 294 5709 Confidential email can be directed to marthamyron@northrock.bm

The article expresses the opinion of the author alone. Under no circumstances is the content of this article to be taken as specific individual investment advice, nor as a recommendation to buy/ sell any investment product. The Editor of the Royal Gazette has final right of approval over headlines, content, and length/brevity of article.