Kiplinger lists six ways to improve your odds of success at investing as follows:
1. Using low-cost, low-turnover solutions—preferably index-like mutual funds with a relatively low focus on active management.
2. Hire a fee-only objective adviser to help you sort through your holdings, provide recommendations and monitor them.
3. Keep a low percentage of your assets in "wager" investments, such as a new company or another unproven idea that you'd like to take a chance on.
4. Get objective advice on your employer's retirement plan holdings.
5. If you have a large enough portfolio, consider putting together a diversified basket of high-quality stocks and holding them for a very long time.
6. Ignore fund company advertising.
Uh, ok.
Does anyone else get the idea that they wanted to write a whole article but didn't have enough content so they added a bunch of useless info? That what it seems happened to me.
Personally, I think #1 alone would improve the odds of investing success for most people. Here are some of my posts that explain why:
Personally, I've primarily used three Vanguard index funds for most of my investing life and have done quite well.
I currently own the majority of my assets in these three funds and plan on leaving them there for a long time.
As for tips #2 through #6, they seem like a waste of advice/space to me, but perhaps I'm just in a cantankerous mood today. :)
How about you? What are your tips for improving your investing success?
What has worked well for me is diversifying a bit more from the standard "1 bond fund, 1 US Stock fund, and 1 International Stock fund" formula. I have added REITs, International Bonds, and Dividend payers to the mix. I still use exclusively low cost Vanguard funds. What I have found is the additional diversification smooths out some of the volatility of the 3 fund model.
That said, it is additional effort on my part from a research, tracking and re-balancing perspective. I am a bit of an investing nerd,so I enjoy the time spent. If you are not, the 3 fund approach is the way to go.
On the subject of Kiplinger, articles such as this are why I no longer subscribe. Just wasn't worth the money to receive, nor the time to read......
Posted by: Keith | October 11, 2016 at 12:02 PM
I wonder what their advertisers think about #6?
Posted by: DIY$ | October 24, 2016 at 11:31 AM