For the fist time investors, learning how to invest can seem quite daunting. You have 15,000 U.S. companies that you can choose from, a lot of new terminology to learn, and just the sheer volume of brokerage options and investing strategies can make things complicated.

When learning how to invest for the first time, don’t make it out to be more complicated than it really is.

To be a successful investor, you actually don’t need to know anything about investing at all. It just requires patience and the discipline to invest regularly while avoiding the temptation to try to strike gold overnight. When you keep investing simple, you give yourself the greatest chance of losing the least while making the most. You can effectively make what is traditionally an investment with some degree of risk fairly risk free.

Here’s how. It has been proven time and time again that even professional investors cannot time or beat Wall Street. In fact, 75% of mutual funds trail the performance of the stock market. Knowing this, if you simply put your money in an index fund that tracks the stock market, such as the S&P 500, you accomplish a number of things:

1. You instantly have a diversified portfolio that historically returns about a 10% annual return over time.
2. You don’t have to actively manage your account, know anything about stock, or care about what is happening on a day-to-day basis.
3. You keep your expenses and fees to an absolute minimum.
4. You do not have to worry about how successful the fund manager is going to be at managing your money, because no matter what it will mirror how the market is performing.

Successful investing really can (and in many cases should) be this way. By keeping the process simple you will make money that will double over time, and continue to double as long as you stay invested. It’s when investors try to get creative or start to gamble that they lose their money. For every story of a person who got lucky and made a fortune, there are a million stories of people who lost it all.

Millionaire Money Habit: As you learn how to invest, realize that simple is usually better. History shows that you will make money by putting your money in something that replicates the S&P 500. What other investment with those kinds of returns can guarantee that you will make money?

How quickly do you think you could double money? Let’s say you had a quarter. Could you turn that into $0.50 within a couple of days? If so, could you turn that $0.50 in to $1?

If it is that easy to double money, why can’t you double $100 into $200 just as easily, or $5,000 into $10,000? You actually can, but to do it safely with little risk it may take a little time. One way this is possible is for a growing business owner to take their profits and reinvest it into things that help them grow their business, such as advertising. But there’s another way for the non-business owner to double their own money.

It’s an investing formula known as the rule of 72, which allows you to figure out how long it will take to double your invested money. Here’s how the double money formula works:

The bottom line is that if you put your money into the stock market, which historically returns about 10% over time, you will double your money in just about 7 years.

So, if you are 23 years old and have $5,000, you can expect to have $10,000 when you are 30. If you keep reinvesting those profits, you’ll have $20,000 when you are 37 years old . . . then $40,000 by age 44. That’s the power of compound interest at work for you.

Note that this example only takes your initial investment into consideration. If you invest in a 401k, you are regularly making additional contributions, which will accelerate your wealth creation.

As you can see, when you are a long-term investor and you re-invest your earnings, it is very easy to become a millionaire without much effort. All you need is a long term perspective with a slow and steady approach.

Millionaire Money Habit: You can control the two variables that allow you to double money. By simply being a long-term investor that earns just average stock market returns, you will build wealth with very little effort. This is the safest and surest way to become a millionaire.

Wondering why gas prices are so high? Me too!

I found this news broadcast from this past November when gas was $3 a gallon, and crude oil was $95 a barrel. We thought that was bad? Fast forward six months later and prices have already gone up 40% in some areas.

I have no idea if this is actually possible, but I found this website that sells a guide on how to make your car run on water. Why didn’t anyone tell me about this? If anything it makes for an interesting read, but my suspicion is that it would damage your car over time.

Millionaire Money Habit: Inflation is definitely hurting American wallets, and maybe now more than ever is an important time to manage a budget in order to avoid letting your finances and debt spiral out of control.