Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Saving vs. Investing


The 5-year mark seems to be the commonly accepted boundary between Savings and Investments. Up to this point, I've been focusing on Savings, since all my goals are (hopefully) attainable within 5 years. While I've tried to learn about mutual funds, index funds, and other stocks, investing hasn't yet turned into a primary goal for me. On the contrary, it seems quite the cumbersome task, like I'd be bogged down by feeling that I should be more au courant with company performances, industry outlooks, etc. Is this a completely unfounded fear? Logic says that I could invest in an index fund and just let it ride...right?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I don't really feel comfortable yet to invest in individual company stocks, so for my Roth IRA I started a Vanguard Target Retirement Fund (asset allocation done for me). I figured the most important thing is to get started - as I gain more investing knowledge and confidence I will always have the option of taking my money and doing my own stock-picking/asset allocation. For now (and maybe forever!), an index fund works great for me.

WH said...

I'm actually saving up for that now!