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Basic Principles of Investing
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Putting It All Together
Basic Principles of Investing
- Introduction
- Fund Your Retirement Plans First
- Liquidity Needs
- Deposit Insurance
- Money Market Funds*
- Savings Bonds
- Emergency Funds
- Goals and Time Horizon
- Defining Risk
- What's Your Risk Profile?
- Why Take Any Risk?
- Asset Allocation
- Dollar-Cost Averaging
- Portfolio Management
- Buying Investments
- Putting It All Together
Putting It All Together
Investing is an ongoing process; it is not something you do once and forget about. Make a commitment to remain active in managing your portfolio in order to maximize your returns. Use this checklist to stay on the right track:
- I have money set aside for emergencies.
- I've taken care of my retirement needs first.
- I know my risk tolerance.
- I know my time horizon.
- I've written down my investment goals.
- I have my asset allocation, and I am taking steps to make my investments fit into it.
- I've read the sections on different types of mutual funds.
- Taking my risk tolerance into account, I am investing in a variety of stock and bond mutual funds, diversifying to get the best return for the least risk.
- I'm keeping the statements I get concerning my mutual fund investments.
No one's portfolio is ever perfect. Where you are now and where you should be may be quite different. Remember to consider dollar-cost averaging. You may want to move slowly from where you are to where you should be; divide the amount that needs to be moved into quarters and move one quarter every six months. Staying on top of your asset allocation is a key to successful investing.
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Investment and Insurance products are not products and services of Bank of Zachary. Content is informational only and is not FDIC insured.
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