Investing isn’t only for the rich and isn’t too difficult

Why invest? This is the deceptively simple question that it’s difficult to start any guide to investing without asking.

So, when I sat down to write This is Money’s How to be a successful investor guide, I found myself tackling it.

Our new free PDF guide is designed to help both those new to investing and those who already invest.

The Barclays Equity Gilt Study measures long-term returns from different assets. This table shows the return above inflation from shares, bonds and cash over different time periods.

Finally, it’s true that investing does require a little work, but it is surprisingly easy to get started.

And that is the point of our guide: We lay out the essential things you need to know about investing. It is written to be easy to understand, and we have made it jargon-free.

The guide, which is sponsored by M&G, is short enough to be read in one sitting, but you can also keep it for reference when investing.  

You can download it below for free, to read or print off. Please, tell us what you think.