Good Financial Reads: Best Practices for Investing

As a financial planner, I get the question “Should I pay off my debt or invest?” all the time. Keeping the money in the bank, paying off debt, or investing may be the best choice depending on your situation. In this article, we’ll examine when each one of these options may make sense depending on your situation.

• The opportunity cost associated with the poor timing of initial investment allocations can be significant.
• After missing out on a period of good performance some investors may be further compelled to employ additional timing measures that can further exacerbate under-performance.
• Market timing, the tactical timing of when to be invested and when not to, although sensible at a high level, is far easier said than done.

Many working families today find they are too busy to check in on their investments as often as they should. But as I like to say, “Investing is complex, but it does not have to be complicated.” And if you have a long-term goal like retirement, you do want to make sure you are staying on top of things without feeling overwhelmed by it.

Given that I work with tech professionals, the people who come to me asking for help generally have their financial ducks in a row. They've got a solid handle on cash flow management (and generally aren't interested in keeping up with the Joneses anyway). They're making good use of their employer benefits, putting money into (and often maxing out) their 401(k), and some are even socking money into a Roth IRA via "backdoor" contributions.

How do you know if your investment selections are adequate? How do you maintain that adequacy throughout your entire 30-45 years of working? We find a lot of couples struggle with these decisions or frankly ignore it all together and it’s easy to see why - most of us have had little to no education on how to invest in what will likely be your biggest asset. One way the industry has helped alleviate this obstacle is by introducing target date funds.