Is your age anywhere between 18 and 35? Are you someone who just finished your graduation? Are you someone who just started your career?

If your answer is yes to those questions, then you must be thinking about investing some money for your future. Of course, retirement plans and pension plans are not for you. You must be thinking more aggressively! At the same time, you should be careful not to lose out. So what can be done? How do you get enough money for the next few years (reasonably fast) and not lose out?

One possible place where you can invest is in mutual funds. Of course, not every fund meets your objectives and shares your long (or short) term vision to generate money. Some of the possible types of funds that you can look to invest are the described in this article.

The Emerging Markets Funds

Emerging markets funds invest in economies that grow very fast (like India, China, Brazil, Russia, Mexico etc.). These economies create wealth both at home and also for foreign investors. These funds have posted impressive returns. Many funds have given more than 50% return. However, in the current world economic scenario, such returns may not be possible consistently for a long time. But these funds tend to diversify their portfolio across different countries and mitigate several risk factors. Hence investing in emerging markets funds is a quick way to earn money.

Small-cap and Mid-cap funds

These funds are for those people who tend to take more risk than an average investor. Recent history says that the small-cap and mid-cap have consistently outperformed large-cap stocks. But there is no guarantee that it may continue to do so in the future too. These funds concentrate on growth stocks and therefore have larger returns but the major drawback in such stocks is their volatility. Therefore it is always better to invest in small-cap and mid-cap funds for a smaller period of time. Investment should be made in funds that have a diversified portfolio and smaller asset base (it means that the fund has enough flexibility).

Target 20XX funds

If you are an adventurous person who wants to do a lot of things in life and at the same time see your money grow over a period of time, then target 20XX funds are the ones that you should be looking to invest. The portfolio of these funds will be biased in favour of equity to provide higher returns in the initial years. But over a period of time, it will be revised and more funds will be shifted to bonds to ensure safe returns before maturity. Hence these funds are the ideal foil for the passive investor who wants to have an adventurous life (or whatever) and get some money at a later date.

A smart investor is always on the look out for growth. Share prices are directly proportionate to the respective company's worth in the stock market. So, it is always wise to seek companies which are rising in value. When you hold on stocks of companies that manifest relentless growth, handsome stock market returns are achieved.

But in this aspect don't always focus on the projected growth rates. If all of a sudden the stock market start to lose faith in the said company's prospects, the result can be horrific.

The characteristics of the best growth stock are a combination of potential upward growth along with sizable safety margin. They ought to satisfy three conditions:

1. A good growth rate

It is preferable if the company has fast growth instead of a slow one when the rest of the factors are equal. This is because even the minute relative changes in growth rate can make a substantial difference to the investors.

2. Sustainability

Stretch your vision beyond the growth estimates. Not the 'estimate' but the 'sustainability' of growth is more important in order to achieve great returns. This is a common mistake done by even the clever growth investors. They focus so much on the growth rate that they stand to ignore the logical sustainability of that growth. This myopic vision is the prime reason behind the tech bubble. People get allured by the high growth projections but fail to notice that the company has negligible or few competitive advantages. When the bubble pops, the company disappears and the investors bite the dust.

3. A good price

Don't end up paying far too much for growth. It makes sense if occasionally you pay a hiked up price, because you can rely on the sustained growth of the company. But take care not to defy logical calculations that it makes virtually impossible for you to uphold even a marginal profit even in the situation where the growth is not hampered. It is a good idea to select a growth stock which is fairly priced or undervalued. A discounted cash flow (DCF) calculation will aid you to calculate the fair value of a growth company.

These three central ideas shouldn't lead you to think that value investment strategy is to look for unpopular penny stocks You need to look for growth stocks from strong companies that possess reasonable positive growth prospects. And when you get growth stocks at a reasonable price offering sustainable growth, you can rest assured about your long term profits.

In order to buy options on stock splits and to make the investments on these stocks worthwhile, it is imperative that a proper understanding of what stock splits are should be in order. Simply put, what is referred to as a stock split or a stock divide is the way in order to increase the number of shares in one company, but the market capitalization of the company remains and no dilutions happen in the process of the split. This can be best understood by way of an example. Say a company with 20 shares is priced at $10 each. If the company decides to do a 2-1 split, then there will be now 40 shares that are available to the company's stockholders. After the split, the price of each stock will be adjusted.

With the split, the cost of one stock stands at $5. Any ratio can be used by the company but the ratio that is usually used is the 2 for 1 split, the 3 for 1 split and the 3 for two splits. Some people will argue that with buying options on stock splits come higher stock prices. Research and experiences suggest that this isn't true. One good thing that can be done by splitting the stocks of one company is that this can increase the liquidity of the stock. In layman's terms, the stock will move better and stocks can exchange hands faster. Investors will snap up stocks that cost $ 5 dollars fast than stocks that cost $10 each.

If the effects of buying options on stock splits can't be substantiated by research and experience, then why do a number of investors buy options on stock splits? This could be explained by psychological factors.

For example if investors will expect and believe that stock splits can increase the price of shares, then stock prices may increase as well. Often stock splits can be a vote of confidence of the company, as a split can signify that the management of the company has confidence in the company's future. The stock split has a number of so-called stages. These stages include the pre-announcement, the announcement, the dormancy, the pre-split run, the split execution and the post split depression. The pre-announcement of the split will tend to have an impact on the stocks as stocks will climb faster than usual. The announcement of the split will usually be the time when the price of the stocks of the company jumps sharply. And the valuation of the stocks may increase for a period of time. After announcement of the stock split comes dormancy. This is the time when the price of the stock of the company will level off.

There are some instances when the stock of one company doesn't enter this phase as the price of stocks tend to increase some more. The split execution can be a great time to buy stocks on split as well. The post split depression is where the excitement tapers off. This is also the stage where the short sellers and who has low-risk opportunity to profit from the brief pull back. Most stocks will retreat after this time, but some will continue to post gains. This is the challenge to those who may want to engage in buying options on stock splits.