Before you start to plan your investment, there are quick checklists to get an idea of your current financial status and goals. If all things are good and performing well, you can start investing your money in the market.
To plan your investment is not a two-minute job, There are a lot of things to plan about, so it’s worth to spending time and go through it thoroughly.
Let’s have a quick checklist:
- Does your monthly budget and savings perform well?
- List out all the assets (cash, property, savings, investments, pension and life insurance) you have and know what they’re earning?
- List out what you owe (ongoing loans, credit cards etc..) and what it’s costing?
- Understand if your income remains steady?
- Try to know are there things that might change your life?
- Know your past experiences with money?
Once you list-out all above things and done with them, you can now start to plan your investment.
Step 1 – Set a Goal:
If you are planning investment for your retirement, Instead of saying you want to have enough money to retire comfortably, think about how much money you’ll need when you retire. For example, If you need $1,00,000. Based on that calculate the remaining years of your retirement and calculate how much you need to save each month.
Step 2 – Plan your strategy & Select an investment option:
Its true that as younger you are, the more risk you can take. Its because you have more time to recover downtime from the market in case you lose your money. So decide your investment plan wisely according to your age and monthly income.
Step 3 – Know how much can you save each month:
Know what you have and how much can you save each month
Look at your list of expenditures, determine where you are going to spend too much. Are you spending money on entertainment? What about your car payments, vacations, or food?
Don’t be too harsh on yourself though look for ways to save here and there. Your goal is not to eliminate unnecessary expenditures, control them so that you can free up some part of your income let’s say 10%.
Step 4 – Decide when you need money:
Establishing a time frame, you can stick with is of the utmost importance. If you need the money to buy a car in a year or two, you will create a different investment plan than if you are putting money into a 401(k) plan on a monthly basis for the future.
In the first case, your primary concern is safety – not losing money on the future purchase as your investment plan is short term. In the second case, you are investing for retirement, and assuming retirement is many years away then it is irrelevant what the account value is worth after one year.
So, Plan at what time you need your money back precisely.
Step 5 – Monitor your investments time to time:
Once you start your investment, monitor that you are going as per your plan or not. Evaluate if you require any changes in a plan if they are not performing as per expectation. If your invested money is at risk, sell your investment plan and move that money to a more stable and reliable program.
Conclusion:
As you read, Creating an investment plan takes some work, and no amount of planning can guarantee the outcome you want. But planning is better than do nothing. That’s what other folks do, and it’s often why they fail to reach their goals.
Also Check: How to Save Money for a Happy Retirement!
