Investing For New College Graduates

TomLeydiker.net

Recent college grads are known for the massive amounts of debt they’ve taken on. They go to school for four or more years, and they hopefully have a degree to go with their nice monthly bill. Investing is usually one of the last things on the minds of recent college grads. Yet, because of the ability of money to grow into massive amounts the longer it’s invested, immediately after college is the best time to start investing. Here are a couple of great ways new college graduates can get started investing.

SMARTPHONE APPS

It may seem like a smartphone app would be a strange place to start investing, but nothing could be further from the truth. Recent apps like Stash and Acorns allow investors to automatically save small amounts of money without much in the way of forethought. Stash allows for regular or periodic investments taken from a bank account. Both Stash and Acorns allow would-be investors to round up purchases and save the spare change in an investment account. Stash has a broader array of investments available while Acorns focuses on just a few funds that are intended to meet certain goals based upon a new grad’s risk profile.

WORKPLACE RETIREMENT PLANS

Another great option that is open to many new grads who have jobs is a workplace retirement plan. These are great options because they offer tax-deferred savings. This means that new grads will pay less in taxes, which also means they will keep more of their money to pay off student loan debt while saving. Another great benefit of saving in a work-based retirement plan like a 401(k) is the matching funds that employers will frequently offer. Through workplace 401(k) matching funds, it’s possible to supercharge returns with no additional effort. Many employers will offer a dollar-for-dollar match up to a certain percentage of an employee’s pay. A common percentage is 6 percent. With a dollar-for-dollar match, an employee would effectively be savings 12 percent of his or her salary each year while only cutting their pay by 6 percent.

Even with student loan debt, it is not impossible to save for retirement. Through apps like Stash or Acorns and workplace retirement plans that allow for automatic savings, new grads can begin building their nest eggs. The perfect time to get started is the present.

4 Changes To Make For A Better Financial Year

Originally published on Tom Leydiker's website.

We are constantly setting new goals for ourselves. While these goals differ immensely from person-to-person, we create these goals for ourselves in order to better certain areas of our lives. The most common goals are primarily health-focused – losing a certain amount of weight, eating a more balanced diet, exercising at least three times every week. But one area that should be at the forefront of more people’s attention is a focus on financial success.

Finances also happen to be the area that most individuals don’t know how to traverse. The answer to your financial success does not solely rely in risk-taking and huge investments. There are a few strategies that you should implement first in order to build a strong foundation to grow upon as you continue to expand your financial understanding.

You have probably heard these strategies before, but they are important because they work. Your financial success is contingent upon your personal habits and behaviors, so making these changes this year will help you to lay out a successful financial future:

Create A Budget (Or Optimize Your Current One)

Having a budget is essentially having an organizational tool that helps you track your finances over the course of the year – and they are not as daunting to create as many people make them out to be. But a successful budget is not one that remains static. It will require frequent changes that are dependent upon your income, the changes in monetary amounts that need to be dedicated to certain monthly expenses, and to account for any financial emergencies. Be as detailed as possible because your budget is what will help you control your finances. It provides you with physical evidence of where you can afford to cut back in order to save more money.

Put Money Into A 401(k) Or IRA Plan

One of the worst things that you can do for your financial future is to put off placing money into a retirement savings account. Do not wait until you are older to begin saving for life after employment. The sooner you start saving, the more time you have to accrue a more substantial amount of money. If your workplace offers 401(k) plans to their employees, make it a goal to contribute the maximum amount possible every year – or at least as much as you can afford to in order to still live comfortably. If you don’t have access to a 401(k) plan, look into getting an IRA plan set up instead.

Learn How To Invest

It’s inspiring to read the success stories of individuals who took a risk with investing to have it pay off beyond their wildest imagination. But risky investments may not be a good strategy for a beginning investor. Save these types of investments once you have more experience and more stable funds. When you first start out, be consistent and talk with a professional to ensure that you are making decisions that are both safe and wise.