Finding easy investment strategies that will secure your financial future has become difficult, especially during this rough economic period. With the interest rates that banks are paying on savings accounts being almost negligible (unless you are willing to tie your money up for longer periods of time) and most of the major investment banks are more than willing to take a big cut of your money before you even actually make any investments.

For a financial novice approaching the investment market looking to invest for the very first time, the array of products, funds and securities can be absolutely baffling. Trying to find advice on the subject from a financial planning manager will also lead to them taking a cut of your investment capital that you could be re-investing. Most of the products offered seem to be designed to make money for the banks and advisers who offer them, rather than those actually investing the money.

Finding easy investment strategies might sound like an unattainable dream in this market, but there are simple principles which you can use to develop an investment strategy which will help you invest with a risk tolerance you are comfortable with and also providing the returns that you are looking for.

The first thing to do when planning your investment strategy is to analyse your own financial situation and ensure that the money you are investing is money that you don’t need to survive. This shouldn’t be your gas money for going to and from work and you shouldn’t be taking food off the table to invest with. Once you know what you have to invest, taking away your expenses and money for a contingency fund for emergencies, then you know what you have to work with.

The key to easy investment strategies is to make sure that you are cutting down on the management fees which will leave you having to make a reasonable profit in order to break even. Look for funds which are at the passive, broadly diversified and low-cost end of the funds market. Set your tolerance for risk and allocate your assets to reflect this.

Once you have a plan in place for the sectors that you are looking to invest in, you must remember that investing is looking for long-term returns rather than trading which is for short term gains. Don’t try and second guess the market, the market will win every time. Don’t time your investment by moving assets from one sector to another. This will always be a gamble and should always be avoided when planning your investment strategy. Start small and build your nest egg up gradually while you are learning a strategy for investing, it's not a race. As you learn and become more seasoned at investing, then you can start implementing other new strategies or other investment types. Master one strategy before moving on to others.

While easy investment strategies won’t always see your assets progressing upwards without fail, research in long-term results shows that the less you tinker and adjust your investments, the better the result will be for your financial future and the easier it will be for planning your investment strategy.