Copyright (c) 2010 John Howell

The stock market can be a great way to reach your personal financial goals faster than traditional savings or money market accounts.

Not sure where to begin? Read on!

First, decide what your goals are. This is the best introduction to stock market because without it, you'll just be drifting with no real destination. This is different for everyone and no two people will have the same wants and needs. You might want to buy a house or save for retirement or maybe even use the stock market to set aside money for a dream vacation.

Once you've decided on a goal, give it a timeline. Decide you want to retire in, let's say, 20 years, then decide how much you have to make each year. Tell yourself you want to purchase that home in five years. As an introduction to stock market, you can't go wrong by spending your first few years of investing directing your money (and your risks, see below) towards a goal.

Next, decide how much risk you can handle. Again, this is a purely personal decision but an essential part of introduction to stock market. If you don't already have one, set up a household budget. Then decide what part of that budget can be devoted each month to investing. For some people, this might be as little as $25 or as much as $2,500.

Go back to your goals timeline and decide what sort of risk reaching that timeline will demand. Consider thinking about and planning how much risk you can handle your first introduction to stock market. The sooner you learn about it the better!

Finally, make investing a habit. This is the final step in your introduction to stock market. Once you've budgeted the amount you want to devote to investing each month, it's simply a matter of following through.

If you can't remember to pull that money out of your account each month, set up a separate account that automatically debits that amount from your main account or takes it directly out of your paycheck. Once you feel you're through your first introduction to stock market, you can increase the amount you want to invest based on how you're doing.

Even if things get tight one month, don't give up -- always remember that you're investing in your future and yourself and that's a good habit to maintain year after year.

If you're not sure where to get started, contact a local broker or any of the online trading sites that will let you get started for free. Either strategy will give you a further introduction to stock market and help you from there.