5 Ways to Avoid the Most Common Investment Mistakes

Post on: 1 Апрель, 2015 No Comment

5 Ways to Avoid the Most Common Investment Mistakes

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Last week, we discussed five of the most common mistakes that investors make. You can go to a financial advisor but most either sell high-priced investments for a commission or charge a high asset management fee, which is mistake #5. So, with that in mind, how should you choose your investments, especially if you don’t know much about investing? Here are five options that don’t require you to try to be Warren Buffett:

1) Pick an Asset Allocation Fund

Pros: Asset allocation funds are designed to be fully-diversified one-stop shops of stocks, bonds, cash and sometimes alternative investments like real estate or commodities, so all you need to do is pick one, set it, and forget it. There are several types. Balanced funds keep a fixed proportion of investment types. Tactical funds adjust their mix to try to take advantage of market opportunities. Target date funds gradually become more conservative as you approach the target date.

Cons: The investment mix won’t be specifically tailored to you. If they’re composed of actively managed rather than passively managed index funds, the fees may also be high. Finally, there’s no opportunity to minimize taxes across taxable and tax-sheltered accounts since all investment types are included in the fund regardless of tax efficiency .

5 Ways to Avoid the Most Common Investment Mistakes

2) Sign Up With a Robo-Advisor

Pro: A robo-advisor is an online program that gives you specific and customized investment recommendations or manages your portfolio for you. One example is the Financial Engines program that’s offered in many retirement plans, but there are also a lot of robo-advisors that can service outside accounts too. My personal favorite is FutureAdvisor because the recommendations incorporate research showing that small and value stocks tend to outperform other investments over the long term, it uses low cost funds, it factors in taxes and the investments you have in your employer’s retirement account, and you can get the recommendations for free (there’s a fee to have them manage it for you). If you prefer to have your portfolio managed for you but don’t want to pay a fee, Charles Schwab will be releasing a free robo-advisor service called Schwab Intelligent Portfolios ™ in their brokerage accounts early this year.

Con: Robo-advisors typically charge a fee and it takes time to enter your information in the program. They’re also limited to the investment options the program chooses to include.


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