I have seen a lot of people saying lately, "I can't save that much because my income isn't big enough." Or "I will never save that much." I know it's very possible, so we need more people like you blogging here.
On the investing side, you don't have to invest in the stock market to save big. I think this could be somewhat reckless advice to most, BUT, I have several in my family who did very well never putting a cent in the stock market. They just tend to be really big savers, which will offset the need to take on more risk. That said, I think you could do well to ease in with maybe putting 50% of your money in a balanced fund. Something like Vanguard Star. It's on the conservative side, and has had few down years (very low cost). & as long as you don't take money out when the stock market goes down, it has *always* recovered. But I think if you ease into something like that and see it working for you, you may want to go more aggressive. If not, putting 50% in a balanced fund would be of huge improvement to your long-term wealth, without taking on a lot of risk. IT's not going to work unless you ease into it. That is the tricky thing with saving up a lot and then starting to invest. Only investing new dollars would also be a fair strategy - maybe better for your situation. I made my biggest investing mistakes when I didn't have much to lose.
I think people around here tend to be aggressive investors (the vocal ones). Check out the bogleheads forum - they give awesome investing advice. If nothing else, may appeal to the more conservative.
September 23rd, 2012 at 04:05 pm 1348416325
I have seen a lot of people saying lately, "I can't save that much because my income isn't big enough." Or "I will never save that much." I know it's very possible, so we need more people like you blogging here.
On the investing side, you don't have to invest in the stock market to save big. I think this could be somewhat reckless advice to most, BUT, I have several in my family who did very well never putting a cent in the stock market. They just tend to be really big savers, which will offset the need to take on more risk. That said, I think you could do well to ease in with maybe putting 50% of your money in a balanced fund. Something like Vanguard Star. It's on the conservative side, and has had few down years (very low cost). & as long as you don't take money out when the stock market goes down, it has *always* recovered.
I think people around here tend to be aggressive investors (the vocal ones). Check out the bogleheads forum - they give awesome investing advice. If nothing else, may appeal to the more conservative.