Are Your Investments Starting To Rise?

My last 2 statements on my 401K and mutual fund investments are starting to increase. It sure is nice to see gains instead of losses. It has been quite a while since we have seen steady gains in the stock market. Does this mean that the recession is over? I can't answer that and I don't think that the best fund managers can answer that either. All I know is that my investments are starting to come back and I hope that is a trend will see for a long time. I know a lot of people that have taken some big losses are their retirement accounts and I happen to be one of them. Fortunately for me, I have the time to wait it out. ( I Hope) Unfortunately for a lot of people they didn't.

When it comes to retirement accounts, make sure that you check them often and move your funds around according to your needs. Do not have a larger part of your investment in aggressive growth funds if you are nearing or at retirement age. You can't afford to take big hits if you need the money now or very soon. Move your funds to cash accounts, Cd's, money markets, something that isn't so volatile. Keep it where it is making small gains and isn't losing money for you. That is your best bet when you are ready to retire. You can keep a small amount in aggressive funds, but only keep up to 20% in those type of funds. Put in aggressive funds what you feel comfortable with. In other words, only put in aggressive funds the money that you don't need right now.

Happy Investing!

What is The Right Amount of Money to Save For Retirement?

People have often asked me what is the correct amount of money to save for their golden years. I only have one answer to that, "as much as you can"! Obviously, the more money that you save the better off you'll be in your retirement years. A rule of thumb is to put at least 15% of your gross income in to your retirement plan. The more money you make, the less you will be able to put in to your 401K plan. There are rules set by the government on how much you can actually put away. These rules were established so that the rich couldn't just put all their money in to their retirement plan to avoid paying taxes on the money. I am not sure how much you can actually put in your 401K, but you can also start putting money in to your own IRA accounts if you maxed your company retirement plan out. There's rule about that also, but a good account would know what to do. Unfortunately for me, I am not in that situation. I wish everyone good health and great investing!