Millennials are more likely than other generations to be risk-averse.
They hold 52% of their savings in cash and only 28% in stocks, according to a UBS study. For other generations, the weightings are nearly the reverse: 23% in cash and 46% in stocks.
A 2013 Accenture report found that 43% of Millennials identify as conservative investors, whereas just 27% of Gen Xers and 31% of Boomers do.
And 43% said they would never be comfortable investing in the stock market, in a MFS Investment Management study.
But investing conservatively — or investing very little and holding your money in cash — runs counter to conventional investment advice for the young, which says, invest aggressively now, while your long time horizon will allow you to recover from any losses, so you can reap the compounding benefits of growth.
If you’re a gun-shy Millennial investor or a risk-averse investor of any age, here’s how to try out stock investing without getting burned. Read more here http://www.arbitragebands.com/
1. Learn about the various types of investments.
If you’re absolutely brand-new to investing, get the lay of the land first. Read some basic books (here’s a good list), join an Investing 101-type Meetup group, and do some research, such as on the Bogleheads forum, for do-it-yourself investors.
“Know: what is a stock, what is a bond, what is an investment allocation, what’s a mutual fund, what’s an ETF,” says PJ Wallin, a certified financial planner with Richmond-based Atlas Financial. “Kind of like Warren Buffett said with derivatives, ‘If it’s too hard to understand, maybe I shouldn’t invest in it.’”
They hold 52% of their savings in cash and only 28% in stocks, according to a UBS study. For other generations, the weightings are nearly the reverse: 23% in cash and 46% in stocks.
A 2013 Accenture report found that 43% of Millennials identify as conservative investors, whereas just 27% of Gen Xers and 31% of Boomers do.
And 43% said they would never be comfortable investing in the stock market, in a MFS Investment Management study.
But investing conservatively — or investing very little and holding your money in cash — runs counter to conventional investment advice for the young, which says, invest aggressively now, while your long time horizon will allow you to recover from any losses, so you can reap the compounding benefits of growth.
If you’re a gun-shy Millennial investor or a risk-averse investor of any age, here’s how to try out stock investing without getting burned. Read more here http://www.arbitragebands.com/
1. Learn about the various types of investments.
If you’re absolutely brand-new to investing, get the lay of the land first. Read some basic books (here’s a good list), join an Investing 101-type Meetup group, and do some research, such as on the Bogleheads forum, for do-it-yourself investors.
“Know: what is a stock, what is a bond, what is an investment allocation, what’s a mutual fund, what’s an ETF,” says PJ Wallin, a certified financial planner with Richmond-based Atlas Financial. “Kind of like Warren Buffett said with derivatives, ‘If it’s too hard to understand, maybe I shouldn’t invest in it.’”
2. Invest in a broadly diversified portfolio of low-cost ETFs (exchange traded funds) and index funds.
Keeping your costs low is surefire way to reap higher returns. Over time, tiny percentage charges and or small fees add up — for a median-income two-earner family, they will eat away almost one-third of their investment returns in a 401(k), according to a study published by the public policy organization Demos, The Retirement Savings Drain: Hidden and Excessive Costs of 401(k)s.
Going with index funds and ETFs not only keeps your costs low, but it also limits your risk. “With an index approach, where you’re investing in mutual funds or ETFs that allow you to get access to over 8,000 individual positions, you’re not at risk of one company going bankrupt or falling out of favor with the market,” says Wallin.
3. Don’t try to beat the market; participate in it.
In trying to beat the market, investors usually underperform not just the market, but even the investments they choose, because they buy and sell at less than optimal times.
“Virtually no one goes through a bull market and a bear market and comes out better than an index fund,” says Michael Kitces, partner and director of research for Pinnacle Advisory Group and financial planning blogger.
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