Retirement Recap
Hey folks! I’m taking a week off of groceries and the apocalypse to re-share some previous articles about investing for retirement.
The broad strokes:
Different Types of Investments You Can Purchase:
(Remember, the account itself is not the investment. You have to buy stock market widgets to put in the basket.)
How to Open a Roth IRA, Put Money in It, and Buy Investments:
Hopefully those articles demystify retirement investing!
Don’t beat yourself up if you haven’t started yet or feel like you’re not investing enough.
Start now.
Invest what you can.
Even $50 a month is better than nothing. If you throw $50/month in a savings account, you’ll have $12,000 in twenty years. If you invest it in an index fund that gets a 10% return, you have almost $36,000. And of course if you do nothing, you’ll have nothing.
Which would you rather have?
Check out this investment calculator and see for yourself: https://www.calculator.net/investment-calculator.html
If it makes you feel better, I’ve only invested $225 in my Roth IRA this year. I know, right? The rest of my money is invested in childcare so I can go to work every day and pay my mortgage. It is what it is! When things change, I will adjust.
I think what causes the most indecision paralysis is choosing which investments to purchase. Personally, like target date index funds and broad “regular” index funds. Here’s what’s in my own Roth IRA at this exact moment:
My 403(b) from work is invested in a Vanguard target date index fund. It’s the least expensive fund I could get because the 403(b) requires me to go through a guy. I like the guy though!
None of this is investment advice. I’m a school librarian who’s read a lot of personal finance books, and I’m passing the learning onto you!
One great book to start with is Investing 101 by Michele Cagan:
And of course, I might have told you a few times that I have a book too. ;)
Please let me know what personal finance questions you have! I will do my best to address them in a future newsletter, or at least give some book recommendations.
Speaking of which, I recently finished listening to The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer. As someone who’s firmly entrenched in the market economy, it was interesting to learn about how the gift economy functions — something I had literally never thought of. Kimmerer, a botanist, draws parallels with nature and economics that align with many Pagan beliefs as well. A good read!
What are you reading these days?
Take care,
Jessie
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