Just because you have a good chunk of money you don’t need right now for ordinary expenses, it doesn’t mean you should stick all of it in an investment. Keep enough money to sustain you for a few months should you lose your job or source of income. It should be immediately accessible — not always the case if it’s in an investment. Do some calculations to make sure you don’t accidentally put your emergency funds into investments.
Source: UsaToday.com
The national interest rate for credit card debt is 15 percent. Sticking dollars you could use to pay off that debt in an investment instead will essentially lose you money because your debt will grow faster than your return on your investments. Paying off your debt is almost always the best use of your money.
Source: UsaToday.com
You can access information not only on the professional’s past clients and their financial successes, but you can also look up the professional’s financial history. You wouldn’t want your money in the hands of someone who had accrued large amounts of debt for several years, would you?
Source: Money.Usnews.com
Often financial professionals hide their fees under terms no ordinary person will understand, and even if you figure it out and think the fees are high, the professional might tell you that it’s a very small percentage of what they’ll be earning you. Even so, another professional might take a much smaller fee. So compare different professional’s fees. If you’re investing for long periods, those fees could make tens of thousands of dollars of difference.
Source: Money.Usnews.com
The only source you should be using to find a financial professional is the background check tool at investor.gov. Here you can find pre-screened professionals. And you’ll see unbiased reviews.
Source: UsaToday.com
If you want to make large sums of money fast, maybe you can risk playing the game of jumping on investments that just showed huge gains. However, if your plan is to buy a second home or put a child through college in five or 10 years, and you have your money in investments that have proven to be safe, ignore the headlines about popular investments. Stick to your plan — and to investments that are giving you dependable returns and will let you reach your financial goals on time.
Source: UsaToday.com
Sit down at least twice a year to review your investment portfolio and make sure your investments are stable, and are giving you the returns you want. Even though it sounds nice to just hand over your money and pull out a huge return in 10 years, sometimes even the most stable of investments go bad. Keep an eye on things.
Source: Money.Usnews.com
The stock market changes all the time. Just because you get a very high return one year doesn’t mean you should start making plans to buy a second home or open a restaurant based on expectations of getting the same return the following year. Take into account the ups and downs of the stock market when you make your financial plans. Look at the average return of a stock over a long period, rather than short spurts of great returns.
Source: Money.Usnews.com
You absolutely should diversify your portfolio. What this means is, say you have $10,000 to invest. Instead of putting all of it in one investment, put $1,000 into 10 different investments. And make sure they are different types such as stocks, bonds, cash etc. This is the best way to protect yourself from taking a big hit. If one or two of those investments lose money, you lose very little. Meanwhile, your others could be doing very well.
Source: UsaToday.com
If you’re new to investing, you should work with a financial professional. This is not only because they’ll know how best to invest your money for your goals. They’ll also stop you from making emotional decisions. For example, if you lose your job, fear may motivate you to take all your money out of slow-growing investments and throw it into one stock that did well last week. Your financial professional will talk you out of this.
Source: UsNews.com
