1. Where are you today? Take stock of all your current financial assets and your debts.
2. Where would you like to be? Try to determine how much you will need to pay for the retirement lifestyle you’ve envisioned and your other goals.
3. Can you get there? Determine if your goals are realistic.
4. How can you get there? Create an investment mix that can help you reach the goals you’ve selected.
5. How can you stay on track? Review your investment portfolio regularly to make sure it’s still meeting your needs amidst the changes in your life.
Start addressing these questions soon. To meet your goals, it helps to put time on your side.
When Investing, Learn Aspects of Risk
As an investor, you can’t avoid all risk. Risk can bring reward. However, you should be aware of the various forms of risk.
For starters, you can lose principal if you sell a stock whose value has dropped lower than the purchase price. You potentially can reduce this risk by buying quality stocks and holding them long enough to overcome short-term market drops.
You might incur purchasing-power risk if your fixed-rate investments, such as certificates of deposit, don’t keep up with inflation. Try not to “overload” on these types of investments unless appropriate for your individual situation.
If you own bonds, you may face interest-rate risk - the risk that the relative value of your bonds will drop if market interest rates rise. But by holding your bonds until maturity, you can help reduce this risk.
Becoming familiar with these risks may help you avoid unpleasant surprises as you invest for the future.
Contact Wendell at Edward Jones www.edwardjones.com.
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