Even while you’re juggling your income
to pay for things that might seem more pressing, like buying a
home, supporting a family, or anticipating your children’s
college expenses, you need to build your long-term investments.
The long and short of it
One technique is to split the amount you
invest between long- and short-term goals. Even if you put less
into long-term accounts than you’d like, at least these investments
can continue to accumulate earnings, especially if you’re
building on a portfolio you started in your 20s.
Experts agree that you should make different
types of investments to achieve various goals. For long-term investment
growth, you need to concentrate on stocks and stock mutual funds.
To meet short-term goals, you’ll want to make sure your money
is safe and easily available when you need it. That means using
cash investments, such as
money market funds,
certificates of
deposit (CDs), and
Treasury bills.
If you plan ahead, you can
time the maturities on CDs and T-bills so that the money is available
when you need it to meet your expenses.
