Every person that starts a business or starts to work and save money normally will make a financial plan for the future.
Its as important to have some kind of insurance for your money as for your health.
Some people will disagree with me and with other million of professional that are thinking like me, but the majority of successful people around the world would say that they have made a financial plan before starting to make money and invest money in stocks or real estate properties.

Lets analyse the process:
So you tried to research which is great, you read, you ask questions, then you open a checking account in the bank then you open a cd account and another cd account now you have money.
Actually now you have money you can invest, so now the big decision came:
To buy a house or invest the money in the stock market?
We all experienced this question at one point in our lives, and we also were facing a very though decision as well.
So what should you do?
First of all for any person to achieve all these steps its great, we all want to invest money and make more money and then buy our own house instead of paying rent or living with our parents.

So what is the difference and what will help you more?
Lets start with saying that to invest in stocks it can be a great way to make lots of money very quick way to loose a lot of money very quick.
Some investments are good for the long term, like the Computer and technology world
(google, microsoft, etc).
Now the question is, do you want to wait that long, but how long is long, there are so many questions.
Lets look at buying a real estate property: real estate is by far a better investment than the stock market, no questions asked. Here you also have the same question: will the money will come now or in the long run?
Most of the people dont know the answer, actually no one can predict tomorrow, my personal recommendation is to hire a professional financial planner.
A financial planner will not solve all your problems but he can definitely direct you with your investments.
He will not guarantee you anything just because in the real world there are no guarantees but he will give you enough information for you to process it in your mind and make your own decisions.
Sometimes plans can go wrong but dont be afraid to take the risk, the worse that can happen is that you will loose or win some.
Thats what the whole process of learning is all about.