How to Create an Investment Plan
Developing an investment plan is an important part of financial planning. Many individuals, particularly young people, fail to spend the time and effort required to develop an investment plan that will meet their financial goals. There is a wide array of investment products to choose from, and creating an investment plan will help you prioritize and sort through a broad range of investment options.
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Instructions
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Prioritize your financial goals according to their respective timeframes. If you have a child who is two years away from going to college, you should rely on cash or ultra-safe fixed-income investments to pay for that expense. By contrast, if you are in your twenties and are simply saving for retirement, you should place your retirement funds in riskier stock investments since you will not be retiring for many years.
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Select your asset allocation based on the prioritization of your financial goals. Assets generally fall into three classes: stocks, which are riskier in the short-term but may generate higher long-term returns; bonds, which are less risky than stocks but have lower potential long-term returns; and cash, which is extremely safe but generates very little financial return. If most of your financial goals are more than five years out, you should invest most of your money in stocks. By contrast, if most of your financial goals fall within the next two years, you should keep most of your money in cash. Regardless of your goals, it is generally a good idea to have some portion of your money in all three of these asset classes.
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Diversify all of your investments within each asset class. Regardless of which asset class you focus on, you should never put all of your money in one or two securities. If you want to own stocks, you should invest in a diversified basket of stocks rather than in one or two stocks.
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Choose whether you want to invest directly in stocks and bonds or whether you prefer mutual funds. Mutual funds are diversified pools of securities. The main advantage of mutual funds is the level of diversification they provide while the main drawback is the management fees they charge, which erode your returns. If you have limited cash to invest, you should consider investing in low-cost mutual funds (that is, mutual funds with very low management fees).
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Open an online brokerage account with a company such as E*Trade, TD Ameritrade, or Scottrade. Online brokerage accounts are cheaper and easier to use than traditional brokers, and they provide you with the resources you need to research different stocks, bonds and mutual funds.
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Tips & Warnings
Keep in mind that your investments will likely rise and fall in value during the time that you own them. If you are unable to stomach losses in your portfolio (or if you do not have a lengthy time horizon), you should consider safe investments. Many investment companies have online questionnaires that you can fill out to help determine what type of investment plan is right for you.
