Basics Beginner: Investments

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1.
As a general rule, which type of investment earns the highest rates?
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Stocks. As a rule, stocks earn the highest rates because their returns are not fixed. Of course, they also have the highest risks.
2.
During your retirement years, what do you need your investments to do the most of for you?
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Provide income. During your later years, you will need money to live on, and that will ideally come from your investments. Although growth is good, it also comes with risk, which you don't want during your retirement.
3.
If an investor has a time horizon of 18 months to invest for a specific goal, they should consider investing what percentage of their investment dollars in stocks?
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0%. In general, 18 months is too short a time period to invest in stocks due to the chance for short-term price swings. You increase the risk of loss if you have a short timeline until needing to sell your stock investments. A general rule when buying stocks is that investors should be willing to hold stocks for five years or longer.
4.
The primary risk associated with cash investments is _______.
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Inflation. Cash investments provide safety of principal and liquidity. But because of this, they offer a very low rate of return, often lower than the rate of inflation.
5.
If you see letters such as AAA, BB, A, etc. in the financial news media and they are in reference to bonds, what are they referring to?
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Credit ratings of the companies that sell the bonds. These letters describe the credit ratings of the companies that sell the bonds. The closer they are to AAA, the better the health of the company, and therefore the less risky they will be.
6.
Professional management is a benefit of investing in an index mutual fund.
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False. Index funds are passively managed mutual funds, meaning the portfolios simply mirror an index like the SP 500. Actively managed funds have continuous monitoring and management from investment professionals.