Today we’re going to talk about the lazy way to be invested. If you don’t want to do a lot and you want to set it and forget it, this is the video for you.
That’s what we’re going to talk about today.
If we look at the S&P, you can see that many years ago (1997), we went ahead and went up quite a lot.
You can see it here as well.
Even from 1992 the percentage of return about 885%. That’s quite a bit of time that’s passed by as well. But it’s a huge return on your investment.
Why does this happen?
Well, it’s because prices continue to inflate. My hamburger many years ago was a lot less. Now it’s more expensive. If you look at cars, they were a little bit cheaper back then. Now they’re a bit more expensive. That’s because they put Bluetooth, radio connections, and raise the value in price. That way, the value of money becomes less and less over time.
Everything gets more expensive over time. That’s the nature of the price movement. You can’t buy the SP directly, but you could buy the SPY, which is an ETF. And now you’re invested in the market, and you have the same type of return. That’s because it follows and tracks that same concept.
When you look at this, and you look at this return on investment – it’s enormous.
That one is one of the first ways to be invested in the market is through an index. That index follows the market.
If we do the lazy man’s way of investing, this is it. You need to get a target retirement fund or a target-date fund.
And if you do a target date fund at the beginning, you might be a little bit riskier. When you’re just born, they might put things more speculative funds and stocks that may give you a higher percentage of return. But you whipsaw a lot. As you get older (in your 30s and 40s), it slowly reduces the risks. As you get to 50, it reduces the risk.
You pick a target date where you want to retire. Let’s say your birth year. And then, you can go ahead and see when do you want to cash out this fund. That’s what they do. They adjust. Keep in mind there are some management fees sometimes and those kinds of things. But otherwise, it’s a nice, easy, and lazy way to be invested.
You choose a timeline that works for you and about 15 years target retirement, and then they’ll calculate and show you some funds that may work. Here’s what you’re looking for in returns. That’s another way to be invested in a lazy way.
The number three is to go ahead and get some gold. KITCO is a popular place to get some gold. You could buy some gold coins.
As you look through these, you can see something like this. An ounce of Canadian gold maple you can see right now is $1,350 – each.
However, prices will shift and fluctuate. But you can put them in a safe. The downside with this is you have to figure out a way to store them.
If you have 50 coins around your house, that could be a problem.
Here’re several bad scenarios:
- you can lose them
- your kid could swallow one
- one could go down the toilet
- if they’re not in the safe, you get robbed
There’s more risk attached to it in that way. That’s because they are physical. In either case, it’s a different way to invest. And gold prices do go up with time. In general, if you look at GLD, it gives you an idea.
Look at the history of gold prices. They do continue to inflate with time. You could do the same thing with silver.
This is a little bit more of a safer approach. Here’s Treasury Direct that is to invest in bonds.
Bonds don’t necessarily have to be Treasury bonds. But this is one way to invest. You can see right now you see a 10-year note yielding at around 4.35%. You could invest 2-5-10 years.
There are other Treasury bills which different.
You could do corporate bonds as well. They usually pay a little bit more. But they’re less safe. It’s another approach to being a little lazier but still be invested.
In either case, that is the Treasury Direct government website, and you can research and learn more about how that works.
This one is our last one on the list. Here’s all about mutual funds and other funds. You could get a composite of mutual funds. I’m just using Vanguard. There’re other mutual funds out there. Keep in mind that sometimes mutual funds lock you in. There are additional fees, but anyway, there’re bond funds, treasury funds, investment-grade bonds, or grade types of investments.
There are all kinds out there, tax-exempt, for example. You need to do some research on what fits and works for you. Maybe you could even sprinkle some money in different directions.
Those are a few ideas for you. You could put a little money in gold. You could put a little money in ETF or an index fund. And you can put some money into bonds.
Mix and match, and then, you get more money later on. If you’re lazy, feel free to check out some of these investment strategies.
