Is Investing For Your Future On Your Holiday Gift Wish List?
By Lori Schock, Director of the SEC’s Office of Investor Education and Advocacy
As the holidays roll around, you may be thinking about your gift wish list. Maybe you’ve had your eye on some skis, a new sweater, or even a family trip. Whatever you may be wishing for this year, I hope you have one very important item on your list‒investing for your future.
Saving and investing for your financial future now is a gift that will serve you well in the years to come.
Here are some “gifts” available to you on our Investor.gov website whenever you wish:
✔Resources on our website Investor.gov, which provide unbiased information on how to invest wisely and avoid fraud.
✔Free financial planning tools and calculators, like our Compound Interest Calculator to see how your invested money can grow over time or our Savings Goal Calculator to find out how much you need to save to reach a specific amount.
✔A search tool on Investor.gov where you can check the background of an investment professional and learn about their background, registration status and more. It’s a great first step toward protecting your hard-earned money.
✔Information on how to create a long-term, diversified risk-appropriate saving and investing plan that helps you meet your financial goals.
✔Tips on how to protect yourself from investment fraud like making sure you conduct your own independent research on every investment opportunity, avoiding “too good to be true” investment opportunities, and never investing in anything you don’t fully understand.
✔Resources to help you plan for retirement like making automatic contributions to your employer’s retirement plan and taking full advantage of your employer’s matching funds‒it’s free money!
✔Information on planning for future education costs by setting up a pre-paid education tuition plan or 529 plan.
✔Strategies on how to pay down or pay off high-interest debt and understanding that nothing pays off as well as, or with less risk than, eliminating high interest debt.
✔ Things to consider when creating a rainy day fund and setting money aside for an emergency. Some investors make sure they have six months in savings for those unexpected expenses.
✔Never Stop Learning materials because whether you’re new to investing or a seasoned investor, we can all learn something when it comes to investing.
By considering all these items on your gift wish list now, you’ll actually be gifting yourself and your family by planning for a strong financial future!
Note: Director’s Take articles are written in a short, non-legalese format intended to provide you with tips and information on timely investment topics that are important to you. You can subscribe to receive Director’s Take articles or find our latest article on the Director’s Take spotlight page.
