As many of us saw our retirement portfolios take a bath in 2008, the million dollar question is do we keep our retirement money in stocks and exchange traded funds (ETFs) or should we cash out and linger in a money fund?
We all want to reach retirement as soon as possible and build a large enough nest egg to sustain our current lifestyles. So how do we do this? When it comes to investing, the correct answer is to max out your 401(k) on a yearly basis, have a strategy, stay diversified, keep costs low and stay active with your portfolio. ETFs are the way to go when it comes to cost efficiency, diversification and exposure to sectors. After all, we are the ones that control the destiny of our portfolios.
But after the beating the markets took, many investors might feel tempted to shun stocks altogether and move to a money market fund or something similar, says Lara Cohn for Kiplinger. But is that really the solution?
Not so much. It’s nearly impossible to guess where you might be better off as an investor. Just because one particular asset class outperformed another in the last 10 years, it doesn’t mean that it will continue to do so for another 10.