How safe is your retirement money? Do you have faith that it will grow -- and do so safely enough and quickly enough to help you enjoy your retirement? Take this quiz and find out if you are using the retirement investment strategies that will make that happen:
1. Do you believe you can time the market by following your gut feelings?
2. Have you lost a lot of money during the last two years?
3. Do you have all or most of your money in mutual funds?
4. Do you get your investment advice from your insurance salesman or your friends?
5. If you do have an investment advisor, does he or she get paid through commissions?
Here are the answers:
1. Do you believe you can time the market by following your gut feelings?
2. Have you lost a lot of money during the last two years?
3. Do you have all or most of your money in mutual funds?
4. Do you get your investment advice from your insurance salesman or your friends?
5. If you do have an investment advisor, does he or she get paid through commissions?
Here are the answers:
1. Making investment decisions based on your gut feelings has gotten a lot of people into big trouble. Instead of buying low and selling high, which would result in profits, your emotions are bound to guide you in the opposite direction. What works much better is to develop sound retirement investment strategies and create a plan with the help of an experienced fee only financial advisor -- and then sticking with that plan, unless your advisor suggests other actions.
2. Chances are your answer to this question is yes. Most investors have lost huge amounts of money during the last two years. How can you prevent that from happening again? By going with safer investment strategies. Talk with your investment advisor about the absolute return investment strategy -- which is designed to help preserve and grow money safely.
3. If you have a 401(k), an IRA, or a similar retirement plan, chances are good that the answer to this question is yes. Unfortunately, that's not in your best interest. Did you know that most mutual funds perform less well than even their benchmark index funds? And if this weren't bad enough, mutual funds also come with hefty fees to pay for the fund managers, advertising, and more. What's the alternative? There are several, but the easiest and least complicated would be to buy shares of index funds. They're bound to perform better and come with reduced costs.
4. Just like you want a medical specialist if you have a serious medical problem, you also should talk to someone who specializes in investing if you want investment advice. Your friend may have had a winning stock at some point, but chances are good that he or she doesn't know too much about the reasons why this stock did so well, and would be unable to replicate that performance with other investment vehicles. If you want expert advice, it's always best to talk with an expert.
5. This is a key question. If your investment advisor is paid in commissions for their advice, they're not working for you. Be sure to ask any prospective advisors how they get paid, and look for fee only advisors. That way, you know that their fiduciary responsibility lies with you.
