By Chase Imberger
•
January 9, 2025
Investing is often seen as a complex and intimidating process, but it's a crucial step towards achieving long-term financial goals. By investing your money, you can harness the power of compound interest, keep up with inflation, and secure your financial future. The Power of Compound Interest Compound interest is a very powerful tool. In short, compound interest is the interest you earn on top of interest you have already made. Over time, this compounding effect can significantly grow your funds. The earlier you start investing, the more time your money has to grow. Overcoming Inflation Inflation erodes the purchasing power of money over time. By investing in assets that can outpace inflation, you can protect your wealth and maintain your standard of living. Achieving Financial Goals Investing can help you achieve various financial goals, such as: Retirement: Investing in retirement accounts like 401(k)s and IRAs can help you save for a comfortable retirement. Homeownership: Investing in assets like stocks and bonds can help you save for a down payment on a home. Education: Investing in education savings accounts can help you save for your children's college education. Gasaway Investment Advisors' Approach to Investing At Gasaway Investment Advisors, we believe in a personalized approach to investing. We tailor our investment strategies to each client's unique financial goals, risk tolerance, and time horizon. Our investment philosophy is based on a diversified approach, which involves spreading your investments across various asset classes to reduce risk. We typically invest in a mix of equities and bonds. We use investment vehicles like mutual funds and ETFs to help achieve more diversification for the funds invested. Investing for Different Age Groups The optimal investment strategy can vary depending on your age and risk tolerance. Here's a general guideline: 18-45: At this stage, you have a long investment horizon, allowing you to take on more risk. Consider investing heavily in equities, such as stocks and equity mutual funds. Market corrections can be seen as an opportunity to buy more shares as things will be priced cheaper. 45-60: As you approach retirement, it's wise to gradually shift your portfolio towards more conservative investments, such as bonds and fixed-income funds. This can help protect your wealth from market volatility. There should still be equity exposure for growth, but not as much as previously. 60-80: As you enter retirement, you may want to further reduce your risk exposure by increasing your allocation to fixed-income investments. However, it's important to maintain a balanced portfolio to generate income and preserve capital. 80+: At this stage, you may want to prioritize income over growth. Consider investing in fixed-income securities, such as bonds and CDs, which can provide a steady stream of income. It's important to note that these are general guidelines, and your specific investment strategy may vary. Consulting with a financial advisor can help with creating personalized investment recommendations and plans that align with your goals, risk tolerance, and time horizons. We invite you to also attend our virtual workshop on Investments on January 14th at 5:30 pm. By starting to invest early and staying disciplined, you can set yourself up for a secure financial future. The Gasaway Team 7110 Stadium Drive Kalamazoo, MI 49009 (269) 324-0080 FAX (269) 324-3834 The views expressed are those of the author as of the date noted, are subject to change based on market and other various conditions. This presentation is not an offer or a solicitation to buy or sell securities. The material discussed is meant to provide general education information only and it is not to be construed as specific investment, tax or legal advice and does not give investment recommendations. Certain risks exist with any type of investment and should be considered carefully before making any investment decisions. Keep in mind that current and historical facts may not be indicative of future results. Additional information, including management fees and expenses, is provided on our Form ADV Part 2 available upon request or at the SEC’s Investment Adviser Public Disclosure website, https://adviserinfo.sec.gov/firm/summary/123807.