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Disclaimer: this should not be taken as advice but seen merely a possible guideline/strategy to be researched further by yourself We see a lot of questions on forums about how to start investing, what to invest in and it is almost always met by a miriad of answers. From hiding the money under your bed, to using your TFSA to save for a car to FOREX. Truth is, before you invest even one cent there are a bunch of boring and possibly time consuming stuff you should take care of, and this is definitly not what most want to hear. Investing in shares and "playing the stock market" is the last thing on the list to do and it is a very broad subject within itself. Anyway, here are a few things you should consider doing: 1. First Pay of your bad debt. We're not talking cars or homeloans but rather credit cards, overdrafts and personal loans. 2. Then Get insurance. This includes stuff like income protection to make sure you still have a salary if you should lose the ability to work. 3. Build up an emergency fund. You should build up a large enough fund so that you can live of it and cover all your monthly expenses for 5-6 months. You can save this money in a 32 day account or something similar that gives you fairly easy access to it, but still gives you a reasonable interest rate (you want to try to keep up with inflation at the very least) 4. Now you can invest and at this point it is probably best to go see a financial advisor (make sure they are registered: http://www.fpi.co.za/FPI_Consumers/Find_A_Financial_Planner_Basic.aspx). You don't have to follow their advise but they do know a lot more about this stuff than most so it's worth meeting one regardless.