Investment Planning for the Elderly

Many of us have a general idea about what investment planning is. In simpler terms, investment planning is the process of setting and reaching a particular investment goal. This goal can be set down in many different forms-such as a rate of return (or ROI), the amount of cash an investor expects to earn, or a specific target number of years for a specific asset’s value. In most cases, a financial strategy is a detailed analysis of an individual’s present and future financial situation by the use of current, known economic factors to forecast future income, capital gains and/or expenditure. However, there are some exceptions to this general rule.

Some investment planning processes are designed to benefit specific groups of people. For example, tax-exempt municipal bonds and pension plans are typically set up by investment consultants to benefit investors that are retirement age or have retirement plans already. Other types of plans include those managed by the U.S. government, such as student loans and federal programs such as Medicare and Social Security. Finally, there are also estate planning strategies, as well as strategies used by wealthy families to increase their average home equity.

The most important part of investment planning, however, is making sure that your financial goals are actually met. For example, if you set a yearly investment goal of 10% per year in your general savings, but you only save a tiny percentage of that per year, you will not reach your investment planning goals. Likewise, if you set your financial goals at building a portfolio of small-to-medium size investments with a long duration, but you also don’t touch your accounts on a monthly basis, you will not meet these goals. To help you set your personal financial goals and find the right strategies to achieve them, use the services of a qualified investment planning advisor.

To begin, ask yourself what type of investment planning you need: immediate or delayed? For instance, if you plan to meet your annual investment planning goals by borrowing money to invest in short-term funds and paying them back over time, it would be more beneficial to borrow a thousand dollars at a time and pay it back over a couple of years rather than a couple of months or even a year. Similarly, if you want to buy large chunks of stocks that you can hold for a long time, then buying one stock at a time over a long period of time is more beneficial than buying dozens of individual stocks each month. In addition, if you are planning to retire at some point in the future, then you will want to set aside money in an IRA or other type of retirement account that will allow you to make investments over the long term. For this strategy, you should look to buy bonds and annuities rather than stocks.

The next important step to take when planning your investment planning strategies is to decide on a target date for reaching your long term goals. This could be any point in the future, but it is most important to set a concrete goal in order to help keep you focused and inspired during your time away from work. For instance, if you want to have enough money to fund your retirement when you are 70 years old, then it would be best to set your goal to reach that level of income at the start of every year rather than doing it all at once. You can also use annuity calculators or financial calculators to help figure out the numbers and see how much you need to set aside.

The final step in the investment planning process is to make sure that you are funding your financial goal according to your income. If you are making around a half-time salary, then you should probably save around four percent of your after-tax income and put it in an IRA. If you are making six figures, then you should probably save around twelve percent of your salary and put it in an IRA. It is important to remember to use fixed rates of interest that are scheduled to remain stable rather than changing dramatically, so that your actual savings will remain consistent each year. After you reach your retirement age, you should have already converted most of your fixed investment accounts into a Roth, because they offer higher after-tax income, but require less tax saving.