It's important to know what you're doing in the share market, diversification is key. If you're going to buy shares in a big bank then you should buy also buy shares in something like the health sector or maybe in mining to counter balance the bank. Ideally you should have a portfolio of around 10 - 15 different shares and don't be afraid to look overseas either.
I'm Australian, our share market is worth 2% of the world total share market yet ours outperforms the world index by a little over 1% per annum. This doesn't mean Aussies shouldn't look overseas though, as you don't know what's going to happen in the future.
Shares have a bad reputation due to the media coverage of market crashes etc, if you have a well diversified portfolio though, you actually cannot lose. even if you make losses in the first few years, studies have shown that over a period of 20 years, you WILL make a return. Also think about this; if you had invested $1000 in the Australian All Ords 30 years ago, it'd be worth $55,000 today (I don't know much about overseas markets but I'd assume you'd get similar returns).
I've deferred from university so that I can work for 9 months, build up savings of around $20,000 and put $10,000 into the share market and the rest spent on living and a car (I'm 19, live at home still so I can afford to save).
It's important to start now, I'm not really thinking about my retirement yet but wealth building in general.. The hard part about it all is being able to afford to save that amount of money in such a short amount of time and not spending it all as really it's all extra income, it's not vital to my living arrangements etc.
Also have a plan, you want to put in a bit of your weekly income into your shares if you want to make a substantial return. It doesn't have to be a huge amount, say 5% if you can afford it, even 2% will make a huge difference for an investment period of 25 years or more.
Also of note: The share market outperforms ALL other investment types, whether it be residential or commercial property, managed funds, hedged funds, government bonds and high interest accounts. So it's the one to go for if you're only going to pick the one. Again, diversification is key and having money in more than one asset class will only lessen the risk further (remember though as I said, if you're picking top quality shares in companies with no debt etc then you won't lose out in the long run).
