Perhaps you’ve heard that to really grow your money, you need to start investing. But does just the thought of the topic make you feel anxious, You’re not alone: 62% of younger investors say they feel overwhelmed simply by all the options available to them, according to a recent Scottrade survey.

It’s the classic problem of the tyranny of choice: Having too many options makes actually picking one feel like more work than it needs to be. And there is a lot of choice out there for investors — including stocks, bonds, real estate, mutual funds, exchange traded funds and much more.

Even when you just look at stocks and all the different ways you could mix them into an index, Bloomberg notes that you’d likely have a googol of different combinations. Being an expert stock picker isn’t actually necessary to grow your wealth. In fact, most people get in trouble specifically when they think of investing as a way to get rich quickly, said Bruce Greenwald, a professor of finance and asset management at the Columbia Business School.

“There are deeply embedded human behaviors that are really dysfunctional when it comes to investing in financial markets,” Greenwald said. “People will overpay for the prayer and dream of getting richer. So how do you invest intelligently, if slowly, It comes down to some basic principles. Here are the key factors you’ll need to understand to grow your money for the long term, with answers to your five biggest investing questions. 1. What’s the best reason to start investing,

The main argument for putting your money in anything other than a checking account is — essentially — to avoid losing your net worth to inflation. In a checking account, your cash will still be there in 40 years, assuming you don’t touch any of it. 3.95 would have gotten you a new business suit in 1955. But in 2018, it’s not enough to buy a pack of retractable erasers on Amazon. 7,000 today, according to calculations from New York University finance professor Aswath Damodaran.

3.95 would have been enough to buy about 26 General Electric shares in the early 1960s, according to historical stock data on MacroTrends. That said, only a psychic can know for sure which companies are going to be profitable — let alone still around — in 50 years. That’s one reason why lots of investors have increasingly gravitated toward “diversified” investments like funds, which combine many assets together to balance risk and reward — particularly for retirement savers.

Target-date funds, for example, are a spin on balanced funds that are designed to get a little bit less risky each year as you age toward retirement. 2. When should I begin investing, There are many advantages to getting an early start as an investor. Just to name a couple, you have more time for your money to grow — and more time for (inevitable) market downturns to correct themselves.

Still, you might feel unmotivated. You might know, for example, you need to be investing for old age already. But it pays to get focused: The advantage of a long investment period is powerful. 600,000 by the time they’re 65, as the below calculation from JP Morgan shows. But if that person waited until age 35, they could invest three times that figure and still wind up with less money in the long run.

Now — while this is certainly a case for beginning retirement savings right away — it is not to say you should be putting every last dime into an investment portfolio just yet. Young savers often have other financial priorities to consider alongside (and even above) investing, certified financial planner Michael Kay said in a phone interview. “Don’t forget to make sure your emergency funds are funded,” Kay said. In other words — while there are always exceptions to rules of thumb — you’ll want to follow a basic order of operations.

One possible exception is if foregoing retirement savings would cost you extra — like if you work in a job that matches your contributions, explained Maria Bruno, a certified financial planner and retirement strategist at Vanguard. “For investors just starting out, if you have a company match, you don’t want to leave money on the table,” she said. To be sure, everyone is going to have different financial situations and goals, which is why it’s never a bad idea to run your priorities by a financial advisor if you’re not comfortable doing the math yourself.