Submitted by Tim Scheuffelle at Edward Jones
Summer is here — time for barbeques, baseball and beaches. Of course, this is also a big season for travel. Still, while you and your family may enjoy going on a summertime trip, there’s one part of your life that should never go on vacation — your investments.
To help make sure your investments keep working all year long, consider these tips:
- First, avoid “lazy” investments — specifically, don’t overload your portfolio with short-term, fixed-rate vehicles whose interest payments don’t even keep up with inflation.
- Also, in your search for hard-working investments, look for the “multi-taskers.” Can you find a particular type of investment that can work to achieve multiple goals at the same time? Consider dividend-paying stocks. If you need the income to supplement your cash flow, you can cash the dividend checks. And if you don’t actually need the dividends to support your income stream, you can reinvest them for more growth potential to help keep increasing your overall wealth. Finally, many dividend-paying stocks also offer growth potential. But be forewarned: Companies can lower or discontinue their dividends at any time.
- One more suggestion: Don’t take a “time out” from investing. The financial markets regularly move up and down. During the “down” times, don’t get so discouraged that you decide to take a “time out” from investing until “things get better.” No one can really predict when a downturn will end, but you don’t want to be on the investment sidelines when the market turns around.
Have a relaxing summer — but keep those investments working!
