April 25, 2014
Saving your money is important. Investing your money is important. How do you combine these two habits most effectively?
Saving your money is important. Investing your money is important. How do you combine these two habits most effectively?
If you pay yourself first and automatically set aside part of your pay to be put in to your investments you will be doing the best of both worlds, you are saving by investing, if you put your savings in to a well diversified group of index funds your savings will get the best return, saving in the bank is not where you want to keep your money for the long term. If your savings are your investments you will be pretty well off, your emergency account may be kept in the bank or a short term or intermediate term bond fund, its just a matter of preference. You want to be able to get to that emergency account quickly if needed to. The more you can learn about effective saving and investing habits the better off you will be.
Nice answer, Garrett. Let’s review.
Saving a decent amount of your paycheck consistently over time while investing at the lowest possible cost is the wise option when attempting to grow your money over time through that amazing thing called compound interest.
Save at least 10% of your paycheck and pay yourself first at the beginning of the month by automatically taking money out before you get it. Have that money sent to your company retirement plan at work (401k for example) and/or your Roth IRA or taxable account at a place like Vanguard. Buy no-load (no commission) index mutual funds and hold them for long periods of time. Financial freedom will follow just like your shadow on a beautiful sunny day!
Sharebuilder is an excellent cpoamny to purchase stocks with if you are opening a DRIP Plan. DRIP’s are seldom talked about because brokers make very little money when they suggest them. Yet, they have proven to be one of the best, if not the best, long-term strategy on Wall Street. They are perfect for small investors, as well as big investors. They are safe and allow you to not care about whether the market is going up or down. However, DRIP Plans are most effective on a long-term basis. If you do not plan on keeping you money in them for atleast 5 years, you might consider other options. Be careful about mutual funds. People will lead you to believe that they are a safe haven. About 75% of them under perform the stock market. All of them have management fees, and some of them have sales loads.There are good mutual funds available, but you really have to look at their track records.Ask your parents for some guidance.
Thank you for the coupon class. It pedivord the extra knowledge to continue on my way to couponing and saving money with other programs. I can’t wait for the class for drug stores.