The key to financial success is mostly to build investment discipline. You have to keep putting money in, over and over. If you adopt the tortoise strategy rather than that of the hare, youll end up ahead in the long run. Many people want to invest in spurts. They dont think about it on a regular basis, but only when they happen to have some extra cash on hand. This is exactly the wrong way to go about it. You should think about investing as if its a regular bill that you have to pay. Every month, you need to be putting something in, and it needs to be the same amount. Dont decide that you can cut it out for a month or just not do it. Youll lose your discipline youll decide later on that maybe you dont need to do it for two months, or three. After that, its just a disaster youll gradually spiral downward, losing your investment momentum. This can be a terrible chain reaction, and its a bad idea to even let it get started. Only a regular investment program can make sure that youre sticking a decent amount in every month. You need to use an investment calculator to figure out what your ultimate goal is, and how much you need to put in every month to get there. If you skimp, you wont reach your goal and that can mean a retirement that you wont really enjoy. You dont want to be working into your 70s, you want to be enjoying your life. |