Your financial dream is our top priority.
We all have financial dreams. Maybe you’d like to be completely debt free or maybe you’d like to retire early. Maybe you have a vision of the dream home you’d like to live in during your retirement years. The challenging part is transforming those financial dreams into financial goals. Without turning that dream into a living breathing goal on paper, it’s near impossible to achieve. Even then, once you’ve defined and laid out the goal, achieving that milestone over a specific time frame is hard to accomplish without a plan to manage it. Regardless of your specific goals, we believe there are five steps Nash – Hasty Investment Services can help you take to potentially increase your chances toward independence.
- Create a detailed yet flexible plan. Ask yourself this question: How exactly are you going to get from where you are today to where you want to be, financially speaking? What timeframe you would like to achieve your goal? What do you have to do each month/year to make it there?
- Make sure to add reality into that plan. Quite often people establish savings goals that are simply outside the realm of what can be easily achieved. A person who lives paycheck to paycheck will not suddenly be debt free in a year’s time (barring winning the lottery)! Instead, you are going to need to look at what you can realistically manage. Maybe you can work toward that goal, but realistically it may take four or five years longer than you anticipated. Maybe the size of the goal just needs to be shrunk a little bit in order to make your ideal time frame. Reality and flexibility combine to help you on that path.
- Automate it. Once you have your goal and you’re shown the path to pursue it, automate the plan. Whether it’s in your company retirement plan or an IRA, making automatically deducted payments from your paycheck or your bank account will help work towards the goal. Doing this can save you from having to make the decision to make the investment in the future when the emotions of immediate gratification may cloud your judgment.
- Maintain other funds in the bank for emergency purposes. Keeping additional funds in the bank for emergency or immediate needs can keep you from taking funds from your retirement accounts and undermining your progress toward your goals.
- Review and make adjustments annually. By tracking your progress, in good and bad markets and reviewing that progress against your long term goals, you can make the necessary adjustments in working towards your goals. Maybe the market didn’t perform as well as you had planned in the past year, but your automated payments may then have purchased more shares of your investment than you had planned on. While this may seem like you’re no longer on track to meet your goals, that broader based of additional shares may potentially propel your balances if the markets recover. Keeping that long term goal and your progress towards it will help you to make educated and informed decisions along the way.
At Nash – Hasty Investment Services, we use a developed and maintained process to help you create a plan, execute your plan, review and make adjustments along the way. We are committed to your independence.
Leaving a current employer can be an exciting and nerve wracking time of life at the same time. It can be exciting as you think of the new possibilities you’ll have in your new daily setting. However, you may be wondering what can happen to the balance you’ve worked so hard to save in your former employer’s 401k plan. However, before you decide, it’s important to understand and evaluate all your options.
Consider your options.
Which option is appropriate for you? There are several factors to consider based on your personal circumstances and preferences. We can help you become informed in order to make the most informed decision for yourself. Here are several of the options that may be available to you. Contact us today to learn more about the pros and cons and costs of each.
- Leave it in your former employer’s plan
- Move it to your new employer’s plan
- Take a cash distribution
- Roll your 401k into an IRA
Before you make your decision, we encourage you to be sure you know the benefits and limitations of your available options and consider factors such as investment related expenses, plan or account fees, the available investment options, distribution options available, availability of loan provisions, age eligibility of access, tax treatment and penalties, and other factors specific to your specific individual situation.
Dollar cost averaging involves continuous investment in securities regardless of fluctuation in price levels of such securities. An investor should consider their ability to continue purchasing through fluctuating price levels. Such a plan does not assure a profit and does not protect against loss in declining markets.
The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual.
