Stock Market Today

3. Get Your Financial House In Order

Even though investing may be more fun than personal finance,it makes more sense to get started on them in the reverse order. If you don’t know where the money goes each month, you shouldn’t be thinking about investing yet. Tracking your spending habits is the first step toward improving them. If you’re carrying debt at a high rate of interest (especially credit card debt), you should unburden yourself before you begin investing. If you don’t know how much you save each month and how much you’ll need to save to reach your goals, there’sno way to know what investments are right for you.

If you’ve transitioned from a debt situation to a paycheck-to-paycheck situation to a saving some

money every month situation, you’re ready to begin investing what you save. You should start by amassing enough to cover three to six months of expenses, and keep this money in a very safe investment like a money market account, so you’re prepared in the event of an emergency. Once you’ve saved up this emergency reserve, you can progress to higher risk (and higher return) investments: bonds for money that you expect to need in the next few years, and stocks or stock mutual funds for the rest. Use dollar cost averaging, by investing about the same amount each month. This is always a good idea,but even more so with the dramatic fluctuations in the market in the past 10 years. Dollar cost averaging will make it easier to stomach the inevitable dips

And remember, never invest in anything you don’t understand.

4. Develop A Long Term Plan

Now that you know your current situation, goals, and personality, you should have a pretty good idea of what your long term plan should be. It should detail where the money will go: cars, houses, college, retirement. It should also detail where the money will come from. Hopefully the numbers will be about the same.

Don’t try to time the market. Get in and stay in. We don’t know what direction the next 10% move will be, but we do know what direction the next 100% move will be.

Review your plan periodically, and whenever your needs or circumstances change. If you are not confident that your plan makes sense, talk to an investment advisor or someone you trust.