As the New Year rolls around, it may be time to evaluate where you are with your investment plan and consider making some changes to try to improve your standing.
Are you precisely where you want to be with your investment goals? If you are, congratulations. But if not, you’re not alone. About 38% of Americans cited improving their finances as a top resolution for 2024.1
Investing goes hand-in-hand with saving, and there are plenty of investing habits that may put you in better shape for achieving your New Year’s financial resolution.
Make a long-term plan—and revisit it annually. Investing money without a future plan leaves you without direction or motivation. Write down how much you’re currently investing, how much you plan to invest over time, and what goals you’re hoping to achieve. Then revisit your strategy at the same time next year.
Invest more. The median household retirement savings for all families was $87,000 as of 2022, the most recent year of data available.2 The expected retirement timeframe for men is 18.6 years and for women, 21.3 years in the United States.3 Even with Social Security, those retirement savings may not be enough to finance the comfortable retirement you may envision. If you aren’t maxing out your retirement savings accounts, such as your IRA and your 401(k), this may be an ideal time to bump up your contributions.
Invest regularly. If you haven’t automated your investment contribution plan, you’re missing out on a popular method that simplifies the process. Once you’ve chosen your investments, it’s simply a matter of contributing regularly to those investments to try to continue to build your wealth taking advantage of compounding interest. You can set your plan on autopilot by arranging to have a set amount of money automatically transferred from your bank into your investment account each month. That way, your contributions will continue to flow into your investment plan without any additional thought or effort on your part.