Not Investing? You're Missing Out

Most people know that investing is important. Unfortunately, however, a lot of people don’t really think it’s important or applicable to them.  

In truth, though, investing is something just about everyone with income can do. And, in fact, not doing it has some serious consequences.

Retirement Will Come…

If you’re relatively young, then it’s probably hard to imagine yourself retiring. However, that day will come, and it may come faster than you think.

When you retire, you are going to need something to live on. If you haven’t invested, where will that money come from?

Social security likely won’t be enough, and pensions really aren’t commonplace these days. Thus, it’s typically up to you to invest and save so that you can live comfortably in retirement.

You’re Wasting Money….

If you’re like most people, you probably waste money on something you shouldn’t.

Maybe you’re going out to eat too much, paying for too many subscription services, or partying your money away.

No matter what, if you’re wasting money on something instead of investing that same money, you’re literally just throwing money away.

Do you really want to look back and feel ashamed of all the money you’ve wasted? Do you want to remember all those wasted dollars when you’re having a hard time in retirement? Of course not.

If you start investing now, though, you won’t ever have to feel that way, and you can maybe even earn some extra money to spend on a few “fun” things now and then without feeling guilty.

The bottom line is that investing is necessary in today’s world, and not doing it has consequences. 

Don’t find this out the hard way. Start investing now! And, if you need help getting started, remember you can always hire an investment adviser to assist you.

Questions to Ask Yourself Before Retirement

Retirement. It’s something that many people look forward to but that people often don’t adequately prepare for. This is unfortunate since not properly preparing for retirement can lead to a difficult and stressful retirement, which is the exact opposite of what most people want. In order to plan for retirement, though, you have to know what your retirement is going to look like, and you can often figure this out and adequately save by asking yourself a few simple questions.   

Question #1: What Do You Want to Do When You Retire?

How much money you’ll need in retirement will depend largely on what you plan to do in retirement. Think about whether you want to travel regularly, where you want to live, and how you plan to spend your time. Obviously, someone who wants to stay home and garden is going to need less to retire on than someone who wants to travel the world! Thus, come up with an idea of how you plan to spend your retirement years and then save an accurate amount to help you accomplish those goals.

Question #2: How Long Will My Retirement Last?

You have no idea how long you’ll be retired or how long you’ll live once you retire. No one can predict the future, but you can make a pretty accurate guess. Figure out your life expectancy by analyzing your overall health and your family history. If you have a realistic idea of your life expectancy, you can make sure that you’re saving enough money to actually get you through your entire retirement.

Question #3: Am I Preparing for Retirement Like I Should?

This last question requires you to be super honest with yourself. If you’re not, you could end up like the many other people out there who are not adequately prepared for retirement. Honestly, unless you’re saving around 10 to 20% of your income on a regular basis and have been for quite some time, you’re probably not doing enough. If you think you could be doing more to prepare for retirement, then start! Talk to a financial adviser to learn about good options for saving for retirement.

As you can see, retirement isn’t something that you can really do without a lot of thought, but if you do put the thought and effort it, it will be worth it because you should have a much better retirement experience when the time comes.

For Parents of Special Needs Children

If you are the parent of a child with special needs, then you probably already know that there can often be additional costs and fees involved in raising your child and ensuring he or she has the best life possible. What you might not know, however, is that the government understands your plight and has written some provisions for you into the tax code, provisions which you should make an effort to learn about and take advantage of where possible.   

Special Education

If you have placed your child in a specialized school, you can actually deduct the costs associated with the school as a medical expense, believe it or not. You can deduct the cost to the extent that it exceeds the 10% of adjusted gross income floor for medical expenses.

Fortunately, lots of school related costs are deductible, including: meals and/or lodging costs, school transportation costs, and any costs associated with overall supervision or care of the child. Plus, children don’t even have to go to a specialized school to qualify for these benefits. If a child receives special care from a standard school, any additional costs involved count as a deductible medical expense. Either way, taking advantage of this option can save you a lot of money!

Home Modifications

Something else that may surprise you is that if you make modifications or improvements to your home in order to make it more accessible to your special needs child, you can deduct some of the associated costs. You can deduct up to the extent that the improvement costs surpass any increase in the fair market value of the home, making this a great deduction opportunity.

The Dependent Care Credit

One final thing that you may qualify for as the parent of a special needs child is the dependent care tax credit. For most people, the credit can only be claimed for dependents under the age of 13, but for special needs children who are incapable of caring for themselves indefinitely, the credit can be received for much longer, which is a nice bonus.

These are just a few of many tax breaks that can help out the parents of special needs children. To learn more about these or other opportunities for parents in this situation, be sure to speak with a qualified financial adviser.

Tips for a Fresh Financial Start

Sometimes, in life, we find ourselves at a point where we have to “start over.” This could be after a divorce or the loss of a job, but whatever it is, most people do not look forward to change. Change does happen, however, and often, you can turn it into a positive by looking at it as a chance to have a better, brighter financial future. If you want to adopt that attitude, you can actually make it happen by following a few simple tips.   

Find a Great Job

First things first, whether you’ve recently lost a job or are just looking for a way to boost income, don’t be afraid to look for work, even if it’s something new and different and potentially outside of your comfort zone. A new job could mean more money and, thus, more financial stability, but it could also equal you being a happier, less stressed person who is better-equipped to make smart financial decisions.

Make Saving a Priority

Another very important thing to do for a better future is to make saving an absolute must. Pick a set amount to devote to savings each month; if you’re not sure how much you can afford or what is a reasonable amount for you, check with a financial advisor. Allotting any amount of money to savings regularly will provide you with a helpful safety net in case of unexpected life events and will help you to feel more stable and secure.

Try a Roth IRA

If you’re truly ready for a fresh start, you need a smart way to invest, and a Roth IRA is perfect since it can work as both retirement savings and a source of emergency funding. The money you put in a Roth IRA will grow tax-free, and you can take out money without penalties in most cases, making this option perfect for anyone who wants a fresh start.

As you can see, starting over doesn’t have to be too hard. In fact, it can actually be a blessing, especially if you follow these helpful tips.

Financial Tips for Recent College Grads

If you have recently graduated from college, then there is a good chance that you are probably feeling one of two ways. If you’re like most people, then you may be worried about your future and how you are going to pay off any loans or other debts that you may have incurred in the pursuit of a college education. Or, if you’re a more optimistic person, you may be excited about the future. No matter how you may be feeling, however, the fact remains that, if you’re like most recent college grads, you have a long road ahead of you, and you need to be prepared to tackle it well, financially speaking. Fortunately, though, you can accomplish this goal by following a few simple tips.  

Have a Plan

The first and most important tip to follow, regardless of how you are feeling, is to have a financial “plan of action” ready to go. If you don’t have goals in place for how you are going to pay down debt and/or get ready for the future, then you’re leaving everything up to chance, and that’s definitely not a smart way to enter the rest of your life.

So, instead of “playing it by ear,” take steps now to make reasonable financial goals for yourself, both in the short-term and the long-term. And, don’t stop there! Come up with a specific action plan of how you plan to reach those goals. A financial advisor can be a great help to you when it comes to making realistic plans and for planning for any unexpected events that could potentially send all your good planning off the rails!

Save Away!

When you are just getting started in life, there are few things more important than saving money. After all, if any of those unexpected events mentioned above happen, you need to have something that you can fall back on. So, take steps to start saving a reasonable amount each month; a financial advisor can help you to get set up on a doable savings plan no matter what your current situation. If you can, you may even want to get your savings automatically withdrawn from your account each month so that saving just happens, without you having to think about it.

The bottom line is that if you can follow these simple tips and seek out the help of a qualified financial adviser, there is nothing that can stop your financial future from being bright!

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Financial Lessons Everyone Needs to Learn

Personal finance is sort of an ever-evolving process. We all make mistakes as we learn to navigate the world of money, but, if you can learn and follow some important financial lessons early on, you can have a much easier time being financially stable and secure.   

Lesson #1: Be a Goal-Setter and a Goal-Getter

To start off with, don’t be the person who just blindly works, earns money, spends it, and repeats. That is no way to live, and it’s not going to get you anywhere. Instead, be someone who sets specific financial goals and then makes detailed, viable plans to achieve those goals.

Your financial goals can be anything you want, whether it’s to buy something smart, like a home or a reliable car, or to save a certain amount by a certain age. Whatever your goal is, having something to work toward will give you more focus. Plus, once you reach that first goal, you’ll enjoy the “rush” and will likely make other, useful goals in the future, all of which will add up to you being a smarter steward of your money.

Lesson #2: Don’t Spend it All

One of the worst things you can do is to spend everything you have every time you have it. This is going to get you nowhere fast and could even lead to overspending, which could, in turn, lead to debt and financial hardships.

Make a rule for yourself that you’ll devote at least 15% of your income to savings. And, if you have a problem with spending too much, stop using your credit card as often and instead budget the money that’s left over after you’ve saved and paid all your bills.

Lesson #3: Make a Smart Home Purchase

One final lesson that you’d do well to learn is to avoid buying a house that you really can’t afford. Having a nice home is something that most of us dream of, but if you go overboard on your mortgage, you may have a hard (or impossible!) time saving and reaching other financial goals, such as having an enjoyable retirement.

Remember, your house doesn’t have to be extravagant to feel like a home. Don’t sacrifice everything just to live somewhere fancy; in the end, it’s not worth it.

Most financial lessons aren’t fun to learn, and, more often than not, they require you to be responsible where you’d rather be frivolous. Remember, though, if you can do the smart thing and really learn and live by these lessons, you’ll have a much better life with a lot more financial freedom in the long run.

Stock Investing 101

Did you know that a single good investment can actually change your life, financially speaking? Referred to as business-like investing, the idea of buying a good stock and hanging on to it for a long time is one that is considered “tried and true,” at least for the most part, in the investing world.

Just think of the people who invested in Coca-Cola before it became a soft drink giant, or the people who invested in McDonald’s when it was just a little neighborhood burger stand. These are people who benefitted greatly from the type of investing described above.   

Of course, not everyone will get as lucky as these people, which is why it’s important to invest in such a way to avoid “wipeout” just in case the company you’ve chosen doesn’t fare quite as well as McDonald’s or Coca-Cola.

If you’re going to get lucky with your investing, you probably want a diverse investment portfolio. Go for the “business-like investing” strategy described above, but don’t make it your only method of investing. Also, research stocks and carefully assess the risks before you buy, and make sure you’ve got some good professional financial help, preferably in the form of an investment adviser, on your side.

Some good general advice to follow when it comes to investing includes:

·         Expect mistakes/ugly surprises and have a plan in place to help you recover from them

·         Be very selective and careful about the stocks that you buy

·         Hold onto stocks, through good times and bad, except in some rare circumstances when you will want to “get out while you can”

·         Don’t buy into stocks that promise you’ll “get rich quick;” nobody can make and keep those types of promises

If you can follow these basic but effective investing tips and get the right financial help on your side, then there’s no reason you can’t enjoy successful stock investing.

Bad Money Habits You Need to Break Now

Let’s face it- we all have bad habits related to money. Some of those bad habits, though, can really hold us back in terms of moving ahead with money and, as a result, in our lives. Below, you’ll find some TRULY bad money habits, and, if you happen to be guilty of any of them, you’ll want to break those habits as quickly as possible.

Bad Habit #1: Not Looking Toward the Future

To start with, one of the worst money habits you can have is to live too much in the present…without thinking about the future. Yes, it may be easier and more immediately gratifying, for example, to have lunch out every day, but think of the money that you could save if you simply took a few minutes to pack a lunch each morning!

By making smart choices that may seem difficult in the now you can set yourself up for a much better future, one with much more financial freedom.

Bad Habit #2: Spending What You Don’t Have

One of the worst things you can do, financially speaking, is to spend (and overspend!) with money you don’t have. Getting too reliant on credit cards and having to face mounting credit card debt can really put you in a bind, one that can be nearly impossible to get out of and that will ruin future credit opportunities for years to come, maybe even for the rest of your life!

Bad Habit #3: Doing Everything Yourself

Finally, make sure that you aren’t too dead-set on doing everything on your own. Americans tend to value independence above all else, but really, there are some times in which you need a little help!

So, unless you’re some kind of financial expert, don’t hesitate to ask for help from professional accountants, financial advisers, and others in the finance business who can really help to take your finances to the next level.

If you can beat these (and other) bad money habits, you can enjoy a life of financial freedom!

Mutual Funds: What You Need to Know

Many people choose mutual funds as a way to invest. However, these are not the kinds of investments that you should just jump into blindly. You need to choose the right type of mutual fund for your particular goals and needs.

Furthermore, you have to fully understand mutual funds and how they work.   

The Types of Mutual Funds

To start with, be aware that there are many, many different types of mutual funds available- more than 7,000! Some of these funds invest in bonds. Others invest in stocks or even both. These funds, obviously, differ in many different ways.

In order to determine, then, which type of mutual fund would be right for you, you need to know your goals for investing and how you plan to use any resulting funds. You also have to think about how much risk you are comfortable with and then, using this knowledge, you can select the right fund. Having a financial adviser help you with the selection process can help as well.

If you choose your mutual fund wisely, you should enjoy a solid investment that allows you to enjoy the returns of an entire market segment without the hassle of dealing with individual stocks and/or bonds.

Active Vs. Passive Management

Another thing that you can and should think about when choosing specific mutual funds or even just considering them in general is whether you are more interested in active investing or passive investing.

Actively managed funds will trade in and out of securities. Passive funds, on the other hand, will buy and hold very specific collections of securities.

While both types of funds have their ups and downs in terms of performance, it’s really up to you (and your financial adviser) to determine which type of fund would be the most useful and beneficial to you when it comes to your specific financial goals.

As you can see, there is a lot to learn about mutual funds before you “take the plunge,” but, if you keep these things in mind and get the right professional help, you can have great success with mutual funds.

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The Top Financial Magazines You Should be Reading

Are you hoping to better manage your money and to really take your finances to the next level? If so, then you’ll be glad to know that a wealth of important and useful information can easily be available at your fingertips, just by subscribing to top financial magazines.    

Of course, there are a ton of financial magazines out there, and you can’t possibly subscribe to each and every one, nor would you have time to read them all. To help you out, though, here’s a list of some of the top financial magazines currently available, magazines that are definitely worth reading and learning from!

Magazine #1: Kiplinger

To start off with, Kiplinger is one of the best magazines out there if what you’re looking for is practical, straightforward financial advice for everyone from beginners to financial whizzes. This magazine will give you information on things like the best mutual funds currently available or how to choose investments if you’re a beginner.

Best of all, this magazine actually has various sub-magazines on different topics, so you can easily choose the topic or topics that are best suited to you and your needs and use only the ones that apply to you.

Magazine #2: Investor’s Business Daily

If you consider yourself a “serious investor,” or if you’re aiming to be one, then this magazine may just be for you. This publication offers extremely useful market and stock analysis, so it’s a great buy if you need some help picking smart investments.

Magazine #3: The Economist

Another magazine that you may want to think about is The Economist. You can learn about what’s going on in the world of finance and how it might affect you. You’ll learn not just about United States financial matters but about financial happenings around the world as well.

Of course, while all of these magazines can be great and very useful, bear in mind that they are certainly no substitute for good, professional financial advice. So, in other words, don’t rely on these magazines to do EVERYTHING for you, but remember that you can still use them as a helpful tool.

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Understanding Social Security

There is a lot of talk, especially as you get older, about social security benefits and how it can and does help people. Unfortunately, however, many people do not accurately understand social security and what it is and does.    

To put it in basic terms, social security is a government program that is funded by payroll taxes. These taxes are paid by employed and self-employed workers, as well as employers. The taxes, which are collected under the Federal Insurance Contribution Act, go to support a wide variety of approved programs, including:

·         Old-Age Insurance

·         Disability Insurance

·         Survivor’s insurance

A great many people benefit immensely from these programs, including:

·         Elderly Americans

·         Disabled workers

·         People who have lost spouses/parents

As a worker yourself, you stand to benefit from social security funds. In fact, while you work, the Social Security Administration tracks your earnings and, after retirement, offers you a social security benefit based on how much you have earned in your life and the age at which you retire. Generally, the longer you work, the higher your social security benefit will be.

If you are curious about approximately how much your own social security benefit will be and/or would like to know this amount to accurately plan for retirement, visit the official governmental Social Security site and use the benefit calculator. You can also get an accurate estimate of your benefit by working with a finance or tax professional.

A tax or finance professional can also assist you in determining how to increase your social security benefit, such as by putting off retirement and through other strategies. Getting professional help is wise to help you accurately and fully plan for retirement and to make the most of your social security benefit.

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How to Manage Your Money

Managing your money and having a good, financial plan to follow is always smart. And, while you could go to a professional to help you work out a financial plan, a lot of it is just plain common sense! If you’re looking to better manage your money and get your finances under your control, then just be willing to follow some basic tips.   

Tip #1: Keep Track of Your Income and Spending

First things first, you absolutely need to know how much money you have coming in and how often, as well as how much you’re spending on a regular basis. The easiest way to figure this out is by committing yourself to careful tracking. For a few months, track everything you earn and everything you spend. Later, you’ll be able to easily see areas where you need to cut down your spending and spot other adjustments you may need to make to better budget and utilize your money.

Tip #2: Be Realistic About Your Debt

While tracking how much you earn and spend can be an eye-opening experience, most people are at least willing to give it an honest try. What a lot of people are not so honest with themselves about, however, is their debt. It can be scary to actually step back and assess how much debt you have, but if you want to gain financial control, then it needs to be done.

Consider all your sources of debt, so that, no matter how harrowing the results, you know what you’re facing. Then, and even more importantly, make a plan to start paying off that debt- a realistic, actionable one. The best thing to do is to start paying your highest-interest debts first and then work your way down to lower interest debts. It may take you a while, but you’ll feel so much better if you’re making an honest effort to get out of debt.

By following these simple tips, you can better manage your money and set yourself up for a brighter financial future too! Remember, making an effort makes all the difference, so try putting these tips into action today!

When the Rich Retire

You might think that being rich means never having to worry about money, but that’s not true. In fact, recent studies have reported that people who qualify as “wealthy” typically tend to have to reduce their spending in retirement MORE than their peers who earn average incomes.  

Partially, this is just practical. After all, the less money someone has, the less spending they have to reduce. However, it is interesting to note that, even when they don’t really HAVE to, the wealthy tend to cut their spending significantly once they reach retirement. These people often choose to forego a large amount of discretionary spending, all in an effort to save money just in case.

And, really, that saving for the “just in case” situations in life is smart…no matter how much money a person has. Life can throw all kinds of curveballs, especially in a person’s later years, so it’s always better to be safe than sorry when it comes to being cautious with money.

This is especially true since not ALL spending reduces in retirement. In fact, certain types of expenses, such as health care related costs, are very likely to increase in retirement years. For this reason and because life has a way of delivering the unexpected,, whether you’re rich, poor, or in between like most of us, it’s smart to always have a backup plan in your retirement years.

Be sure to have extra money stashed away in savings for those “just in case” moments, make sure you have good health care coverage, and, when possible, hire a good, qualified financial adviser to provide you with help and advice when it comes to managing your money in your retirement years.

The 529 Plan: What You Need to Know

If you have a child who is preparing to go to college, or if you’re planning on heading to college yourself, there’s a good chance that you have heard of the 529 plan, also known as the qualified tuition program. This plan basically offers a way for soon to be students or the parents of soon to be students to start saving money for college. It gets its “529” nickname because of the section of tax code that explains this option.   

Basically, this is a plan that you can contribute to in order to save up for college costs- a smart move since these expenses are always increasing. Unfortunately, you won’t get a federal deduction for the contributions that you make to the plan, but you often get a state tax deduction, providing you invest in the plan that is relevant to the state in which you reside.

Another nice advantage of this plan is that as long as you use the money saved in it for qualified educational expenses, such as room, board, tuition, mandatory fees, and other required items, any earnings you receive will not be taxed.

If you’re ready to get these great advantages, then all you have to do is follow the steps, preferably with the help of a knowledgeable financial adviser, to set up a 529 plan. If you’re the one going to school, you can name yourself as the beneficiary, but if it’s your child who is to be the beneficiary, you can name him or her as such and yourself as the custodian.

Depending on where you live, you may also have the option of setting the plan up as a savings plan or a prepaid tuition plan. What you should and can do, however, will vary based on where you live and your goals for setting up the plan. For this reason and to ensure that your plan works out exactly as you hope, it’s always smart to seek advice from a financial adviser in your state. If you can do that, there is no reason that you can’t enjoy great benefits and help from your 529 plan.

When a Loved One Dies

There is nothing worse than dealing with the loss of a precious loved one. Unfortunately, however, when someone dies, there are still estate matters to be taken care of. If this has happened to you and you are now faced with a left-behind home in your name, you have several different options. Ideally, you should have worked out a plan for what to do with the home ahead of time, but since this isn’t always possible, there are still things you can do to help deal with the matter quickly and correctly during your time of grieving.    

First of all, you’ll want to determine if you are the only owner of the home. A lot of times, homes are left to multiple family members. If this is the case, and you wish to buy the home, you can buy the part of the property you do not own providing the other owners are in agreeance.  If you do decide to go this route, it’s smart to have the home looked at by a professional appraiser so that you can work out and ultimately pay a fair price.

Even if you don’t have all of the money to pay for the remaining parts of the home on your own, you can always try and qualify for a mortgage loan. There are also other ways to borrow the necessary money, such as working out an agreement or a deeded interest with the other party or parties concerned.

Do keep in mind, though, that other parties concerned do have the right to file partition actions, which would make it so that a judge would set a fair price for the house and so that you would have to buy the other owner’s share or agree to sell the home at the court-approved price and split the profits.

Typically, though, it’s usually faster, easier, and just all around better to work something out with the other parties concerned, so keep this in mind as you make arrangements for the home left to you and possibly others.

Retirement Tips You Need to Know

Planning for retirement can be scary. Typically, it’s one of those things that people put off and put off, feeling like it’s coming WAY in the future…only to find it staring them in the face before they know it. Many people are worried about running out of money in retirement while others are concerned about how they will pay for health care or maintain their lifestyles. Whatever the case may be, if you’re not prepared for retirement, the fact of the matter is that you’re right to worry. Fortunately, though, while worrying may not do much good…there are some things you can do to prepare and save for retirement that actually WILL help you in the long run!   

Get a Grip on How Much Money You’ll Actually Need…

One of the first and most important things to do when you start preparing for retirement is to determine how much money you’re actually going to need during those “golden years.” Far too often, people underestimate the amount of money they will need in retirement…and then end up not having enough and scrambling to make ends meet.

A good way to figure out how much you’ll need is to start tracking your expenses and spending- ALL of it- for a year or two before you plan to retire. This will give you a good idea of how much money you require and how regularly so that you can make adjustments to ensure you have enough.

Make Changes as Needed

It’s been said that even the best laid plans sometimes fail, and this can, unfortunately, certainly be true when it comes to retirement. As such, you need to be flexible and have a backup plan in place in case something doesn’t go quite right with your retirement plans. Maybe an investment doesn’t pan out like you hope, or you incur unexpected expenses. Whatever the case may be, if you have some kind of backup strategy, chances are you can make it through just fine.

If you can keep these tips in mind and roll with the punches as they come, you should be able to survive retirement better than you might have thought!

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Small Business Owners Need Retirement Plans

Do you own a small business? If so, then you already know, all too well, how challenging it can be to run your business and look out for yourself too. One important way that you should be “looking out” for yourself, if you’re not doing so already, is by taking some of your money and putting it into a retirement plan.If you’re not doing that, then you’re missing out in some major ways.  

Missed Tax Benefits

One of the big ways in which you miss out if you don’t have a retirement plan is by not getting the resultant tax benefits. Most plans open to business-owners, such as 401(k) plans designed specifically for them, come with a great many tax benefits…benefits you don’t get if you don’t sign up for a retirement plan. Such benefits include, in many cases, tax-deductible contributions to your retirement plan, which is basically like free money, and who would turn that down?

Missed Savings and Emergency Cash

Another problem with not having some kind of retirement plan in place is that this can make it much harder to save money for the future. And, when you don’t have money saved and retirement rolls around, what are you going to do? You don’t want to be one of those people scrambling to make ends meet in retirement and never truly enjoying what should be this golden time in your life.

Furthermore, many retirement accounts, including 401(k) plans, give you the option to borrow from your account if you need to, such as in an emergency situation. It’s nice to have that built-in safety net, a safety net you don’t have without a retirement plan, in case you or your business fall on hard times.

As you can see, you miss out on all kinds of things- and these are just a few- when you don’t save for the future. So, make sure you have a retirement plan and that you make full use of it to get and enjoy these awesome benefits.

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Picking Your Own Stocks

So, you’re thinking about picking your own stocks and wondering whether or not this is a smart move. Well, sorry to break it to you, but, more often than not, this definitely isn’t the smartest choice you could make.

See, the thing about investing, when you do it without a lot of “know-how,” is that you’re taking a huge chance. Basically, you’re gambling. You think you can do better than the market, so you try your luck, and, sadly, more often than not, just as is the case with gambling, you lose. 

A much smarter route to take is to leave the investing up to professionals, people who know the investing market inside and out and who can make informed decisions about the best possible investment ventures for your money and goals.

In addition to getting help from qualified investment experts, you should also take less risky measures to earn money from your money. Even investment professionals can’t get rid of ALL of the risk, which is why your investment portfolio should be made up of other risk-free or low-risk investments, such as target-date funds, high-interest savings accounts, and other smart saving and investing options.

The bottom line is that picking your own stocks is definitely not smart, unless you’re some kind of financial guru, so get help and learn how to build a diverse portfolio that will make you money with minimal risk.

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Using Your 529 Savings

People who plan successfully for their children’s educations will often have a nice amount of funds available in their 529 plans. When the time comes, however, these same people are often quite confused about how best to access and use these funds. Fortunately, it’s not all that difficult, at least if you know a few basic tips and rules related to using the 529.  

Where to Withdraw

First things first, you may be wondering, if you have multiple 529 plans, which one you should withdraw from first. Really, even though people stress a lot over where to withdraw the money, it really doesn’t matter all that much, as long as all of the funds will ultimately be used for college.

With that said, though, you may want to withdraw from the accounts with the greatest earnings. The reason for this is that those earnings won’t be taxed providing you use them for college related costs. From there, you can choose to use the other accounts only as needed, and you typically won’t have as many earnings to report on your tax return.

When You’ve Withdrawn Too Much…

Another common concern people often have with their 529 plans is if they accidentally withdraw more than the qualified educational expenses they pay. Try not to let this happen to you because you’ll end up paying taxes plus penalties on the excess you’ve withdrawn.

You also can’t put the money back into the plan if you make this dire mistake. If it’s too late and you’ve already made this “goof,” there is SOMETHING you can do though. Just choose to use the excess on other qualified expenses before the year is up. 

As you can see, there are plenty of questions and concerns that people have surrounding their 529 plans. If you run into any others, remember you can (and should!) always ask a qualified financial adviser or accountant for advice.

Signs Your Investment Skills Need Some Help

Investing is something that the vast majority of people should be doing. That’s because, when done well, it can help to mitigate risk and enable people to adequately prepare for the future, Notice, though, that we said something very important- “when done well.” Poorly done investing is not worth doing and can end up being much more harmful than beneficial in the long run.

The unfortunate thing is that most people who are bad investors are not aware that they’re bad investors. Thus, they never end up improving the way that they should, and, when the don’t improve, they can never really reap the full benefits of investing.

The good news, though, is that if you pay close attention to your own investing habits, you’ll often find some pretty clear indicators that your investment skills aren’t quite up to par.

Sign #1: You Make Emotion-Fueled Decisions

To start off with, good investors never make decisions based merely on emotion. They don’t get sucked into investment plans because someone taps into their desire to be rich or to get rich quickly, and they don’t pull out of investments because of panic, fear, or other emotions either.

Instead of being ruled by constantly changing and sometimes inaccurate emotions, good investors follow logical, detailed plans and investment strategies that have to do with real risk and possible return, NOT just with how the investor feels on a given day.

Sign #2: Your Track Record is Bad

The most obvious way to determine whether or not you’re a good investor is to take a look at your track record. Has your history been filled with mostly gains or is it riddled with nothing but losses? While no one is going to be a perfect investor every time, your investment history should be more good than bad.

If you don’t have a good track record or if you find other indicators- these are just a couple of many- that you’re maybe not the best investor in the world, that’s okay! It doesn’t mean that you need to give up on investing for good, but it does mean that you should consider hiring an investment adviser to teach you the ropes and guide you until you are capable of making smart investment decisions on your own.