When you think of investment help, what do you think? Do you think of professionals telling you how to invest your money? Or do you think of a bunch of numbers that tell you how much you should be investing? Both of these thoughts are incorrect. There is simply no right or wrong way to invest, but understanding how to invest wisely can greatly reduce your risks by learning to invest intelligently. Whether you’re young or just not so young, it’s never a bad time for you to begin investing and receive investment help.
One of the best ways for anyone to begin investing intelligently is to use an IRA. An IRA is an individual retirement account (IRAs come in several different flavors; they are typically called “traditional” or” Roth” IRAs). The key benefit of an IRA is tax deferral. Tax deferral basically means that you won’t have to pay taxes on any investments until they are withdrawn from your IRA account. With traditional IRAs, your contributions are tax-deductible up to the limit on the year you make them. After those limits are depleted, however, those contributions are subject to income tax.
In order to take full advantage of tax deferral, however, it’s necessary to keep our eyes open for Roth IRA options and other types of tax-deferred investments. In order to do this, an individual must retain a knowledgeable, aggressive IRA advisor. Those advisors who specialize in tax deferred investing can provide investment help for both traditional and Roth IRAs. While a traditional IRA might seem like a safe option with the promise of a secure retirement, the truth is that there are a number of real risk factors involved with investing in a traditional IRA.
For example, you may be unaware of federal and state laws that could impact the profits you receive from your investment returns. An untrained, wrong advice from your financial advisor could cause you to miss out on tax-free profits, which could lead to financial problems in your future years. When it comes to investments, the experience is truly the best teacher. Even if you choose to go with a traditional IRA, getting the investment help you need from a highly-experienced financial advisor could mean the difference between success and failure.
Some investors want to supplement their savings by investing in mutual funds and stocks. While mutual funds offer great tax deferral advantages, they usually don’t offer the best overall investment help. The reason is that mutual funds require you to invest in dozens or even hundreds of different funds in order to gain maximum returns. Investing in smaller, more targeted funds is a much better way to build wealth over time. Additionally, while mutual funds allow you to tap into a wide variety of investment companies, the fees that come attached to those companies can really add up, especially if you’re not keeping track of every dollar you spend. By getting investment help from qualified financial advisors, you can avoid the pitfalls that come with investing in less than ideal fund investments.
Investing in equities requires you to understand how all of the different sectors work. Many people start out investing in the stock market by buying individual stocks and don’t learn enough about how all of these stocks affect the overall market until they have a serious investment plan in place. The problem with this strategy is that when things go bad – as they inevitably will – you’ll have little money left to live on. If you want to avoid the pitfalls that come with investing in stocks without a well-defined investment strategy, your best option is to seek the investment help that goes along with a certificate of deposit (CD) or a bonds and annuities program. These programs will give you the investment help you need to determine the best investments for your financial goals, as well as making sure that the money you save doesn’t get eaten up by high fees and costs associated with fewer-than-perfect investments.
