Allocating Your Money to Meet Your Goals

By: AARP Education & Outreach | Source: AARP.org | April 17, 2006

The first step in aligning investment strategies with your goals is to ask yourself which objectives are most important to you. Before you consider individual investments, ask yourself these questions:

• Where do I want to be, financially? You have financial goals. They may include things you want to buy, security in retirement, donations to charity, or other goals that are important to you.
• How will I get there? It's useful to choose a strategy for achieving your goals. It should be based on whether you want to protect your money, grow it, earn income from it, or achieve some combination of all three. It should also include a specific timeframe. Different timeframes normally require different strategies.
• What will get me there? Certain investments may be better suited than others, or have greater potential, to help you achieve your goals.
• What could stop me? Based on the strategy you choose, you will encounter specific risks. You must assess each risk to see whether it can be managed (controlled and reduced) and whether it's worth accepting.

Choosing Investment Strategies

There are three main strategies involved in investing. If you are like many investors, you may have a combination of the following goals in mind.

• Protect your money
• Earn income
• Grow more money

Protection
Suppose you've saved enough for a down payment on a home and you want to be sure the money will be there when you need it. The best strategy is to park your money in the safest possible place—cash equivalents—while you look for the right home to buy. You're protecting it.

Income
Suppose you want a regular, predictable stream of income to go along with the income from your day job. The best strategy may be to lend your money to one or more borrowers by investing in bonds or bond mutual funds, earning income from the interest payments.

Growth
Suppose you'd like to pay for as much of your new baby's college education as you can. One strategy may be to become a part-owner in some companies through a stock mutual fund. If the companies do well and shares of their stock increase in value over time, you could sell your shares for a profit and use it for tuition.

Three Asset Classes

There are three main "asset classes" or types of financial products that match the three main investment strategies. If you want to employ a certain strategy, look first to the matching asset class to find a good vehicle. In this way, you can quickly eliminate thousands of choices and make the process much easier.

Although there are some overlaps, generally speaking, here's how it lines up:

Creating an Asset Allocation Plan

Investors generally buy stocks for growth, bonds for income, and keep cash or buy money market securities for safety and liquidity. How you divide your money among these types of investments depends upon your individual goals. Over the long-term, a diversified mix of investments can outperform a conservative investment solely in money market accounts or government bonds, and at the same time, avoids the higher risk of an all-stock portfolio.

Asset allocation, which means finding a balance of stocks, bonds and cash, is key to reaching your financial goals. In fact, experts have shown that getting your asset allocation right counts for about 90% of all investment success, far more than picking the right stock or bond. That's good news, because it simplifies the investing process to focus mostly on investing in the correct categories, and not on the specific stock, bond, or fund within each category.

Your plan doesn't have to be perfect from the beginning. Any investment plan usually needs to be adjusted from time to time. For instance, your goals, needs, wants, and risk levels will most likely change as you grow older. They will be different when you're ready for retirement from what they were when you graduated high school.