As you move closer to retirement and have less time to overcome market and investment downturns, you should move more of your funds to less risky investments such as bonds, certificates of deposit and money market mutual funds.
Learn About Safe Investments
No investment is completely safe, but there are five (bank savings accounts, CDs, Treasury securities, money market accounts, and fixed annuities) that are considered to be among the safest investments you can own.
The investment type that typically carries the least risk is a savings account. CDs, bonds, and money market accounts could be grouped in as the least risky investment types around. These financial instruments have minimal market exposure, which means they're less affected by fluctuations than stocks or funds.
While we all might love the idea of investing in stocks risk-free, there's no such thing as a stock that's 100% safe.
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Seven safe stocks to consider
The old rule of thumb used to be that you should subtract your age from 100 - and that's the percentage of your portfolio that you should keep in stocks. For example, if you're 30, you should keep 70% of your portfolio in stocks. If you're 70, you should keep 30% of your portfolio in stocks.
Typically, people start investing in their 30s, but is this the ideal age to take the plunge? The best time to put your money in the stock market is right now, assuming you're financially ready. The earlier you give investing a go, the sooner your money could start compounding.
The Best Safe Investments For Your Money
Where should I put my retirement money?
Stocks / Equity Investments include stocks and stock mutual funds. These investments are considered the riskiest of the three major asset classes, but they also offer the greatest potential for high returns.
Corporate bonds: Bonds issued by for-profit companies are riskier than government bonds but tend to compensate for that added risk by paying higher rates of interest. In recent history, corporate bonds in the aggregate have tended to pay about a percentage point higher than Treasuries of similar maturity.
Bonds are often touted as less risky than stocks -- and for the most part, they are -- but that does not mean you cannot lose money owning bonds. Bond prices decline when interest rates rise, when the issuer experiences a negative credit event, or as market liquidity dries up.
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