Building Toward Your Goals
Like everyone else, you may have financial goals such as buying a home, financing your child's college education or financing a comfortable
and secure retirement. One way to achieve those goals is to invest some of your savings in stocks and bonds.
The purpose of this article is to help you understand how to evaluate those choices.
You will learn about the major types of stocks and bonds, and how to choose the ones that match your goals and your risk tolerance.
In the process, you will learn some questions to ask brokers and how to gather the information you need to make competent investment decisions.
If you are ready to begin investing for your financial goals, consider the following before you invest.
- What personal and financial circumstances might impact my investing activities? Age? Other financial responsibilities? Current and expected future income?
- What is my financial objective? Is it to keep my money safe or to grow the value of my investment?
- How much time do I have to leave my money invested? Is my investment period short-term, intermediate-term or long-term?
| Goals |
| Type Of Goal |
Time Needed To Achieve Goal |
| Short-term |
3 years or less |
| Intermediate-term |
4-6 years |
| Long-term |
7 years or more |
- How much risk can I tolerate? Am I a risk-taker and willing to watch my investment possibly suffer negative consequences for the opportunity to obtain higher returns?
- Are there federal income tax issues I should consider when I invest?
- Do I have the time, resources and knowledge to manage individual investments, or should I consider mutual funds or a financial planning professional?
Topics covered in this section are:
|
Basic Money Management
Basic Money Management