Investment management can refer to a variety of very specific actions. However, all of them are based on the same end goal of making sure your investment portfolio has that perfect balance between making you more money for retirement and keeping your overall investment safe so you don’t lose it. Investment management can be done with a professional financial adviser, it can be done by choosing one or more companies to have retirement accounts with, or even with independent actions of the individual who is investing his or her money for retirement.
In other words, investment management takes on many different forms and often requires the work of multiple people or actions in order to pull off that final goal of growing and protecting a strong retirement nest egg.
The Steps You Are Responsible For
One of the first things to understand is that at the end of the day you are the one who is responsible for your retirement. That means you need to have at least a basic level of financial competency and budgeting know how in order to get to that final goal. This doesn’t mean you have to understand the stock market inside and out, but it is worth your time to know enough to have an intelligent conversation with your retirement specialist.
In addition to this, your employer can only offer 401(k). You still have to commit to putting your share of a paycheck in and making sure that you get the maximum matching amount that you can from your employer. If you simply aren’t saving enough for the type of retirement you want, even after saving 10% or more, it is also up to you to find a better budget, earn more income, and otherwise find the way to push yourself to the next level.
The Easiest Safe Way to Invest in Stocks
Almost everyone has heard of mutual funds and has a basic understanding of what they are, however they are often not the best way to invest in the stock market. The easiest way to invest in stocks is to invest in a low fund index. An index follows the general trends of a specific stock market. So an index that follows the S&P, for example, will have a variety of the major S&P stocks and thus follow the same general trend line as the overall S&P market. Look for an extremely low cost and low fee index and go with them. Vanguard has a reputation for offering several excellent low fee index funds.
When you know you need to invest in more stocks and create more upside in your portfolio, but you don’t like the risk or don’t really have the time and ability to go to individual stock trading, the low fee index funds are an exceptional answer that allow you to grow your portfolio without having to pay an excessive amount of fees.