Seniors, generally have money, but many don’t have a lot of investment knowledge.

They generally need the investment income to supplement their Social Security or pension.

Investing Made Simple in CT

How to invest your money, who to trust, and where to put your money are tough questions.

The good news is that there are some simple answers that will get you 80% of the way there…which is way ahead of the general public.

First, you need to decide how to allocate your money between stocks and bonds to get maximum return and minimum risk.

Second, you need to diversify across both the world (US is only 33% of the world stock market) and asset classes to minimize risk.

Third, you should keep your costs low (2% cost on an 8% return is 25%).

To do all the above, you can 1. Try to do it yourself, 2. Hire a professional investment advisor, or 3. Use one of the packaged solutions.

The statistics show it is difficult to do it yourself.  It requires a lot of knowledge, time and effort, and yields sub optimal results.  Generally, Seniors are not well advised to do it themselves unless they are already skilled at it.

That leaves you with hiring an advisor or using a packaged solution.  The research shows that hiring an investment advisor is expensive, but a lot better than trying to do it yourself.  Often the packaged solution is a good Walmart solution at a low cost.

The problem with the investment advisor route, is you then have to find and vet a good investment advisor….and how do you do that?  If you have a good investment advisor who you trust and does well for you, stick with them; they are worth their weight in gold.

With the packaged solution, you rely on the mutual fund company for their investment advice.  While it is often of the Walmart variety, it is generally good, backed by research, relatively unbiased, low cost and will get you 80% of the way there.

So go forth and invest fearlessly.  Just do it right and either use a packaged solution or an investment advisor.