What You Need to Get Started on Your Asset Mix
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What You Need to Get Started on Your Asset Mix
Your asset allocation is your portfolio’s blend of stocks, bonds, and cash. Finding the best asset mix is crucial if you want to meet your goals. In fact, most financial advisors agree that setting up the right asset mix is more important than choosing great investments. Determining your asset allocation is easier than ever before, thanks to a variety of online calculators and tools.
Things To Know
- Finding the best asset mix is crucial if you want to meet your goals.
Investor, know thyself
No matter which asset allocation tool you use, you’ll need to know a few bits of information first. For starters, you need to know your goal. Let’s say it’s to have $1,000,000 when you retire. You then need four pieces of information about that goal to determine your asset mix:
- The number of years until your goal is reached. You want to retire in 30 years. That’s the number of years to your goal.
- How much money you need for your goal. You want to have a $1,000,000 lump sum when all is said and done.
- How much money you can invest right now. You have $20,000 set aside, so that’s your starting amount.
- How much money you can contribute each month. You can invest $800 per month.
While some online asset allocation tools will require additional information, many will get you in the ballpark with these key pieces of data.
