It檚 time to rebuild your portfolio
Brian Bruce, an adjunct professor and Director of the ENCAP Investments & LCM Group Alternative Asset Management Center in 麻豆社's Cox School of Business, talks about rebuilding your retirement portfolio in the current economic climate.
By PAMELA YIP
Special to the Star-Telegram
At the height of the recession and the tumult in the stock market, many workers were stunned to see their 401(k)s shrink.
How badly your retirement account was hit depended on several factors, but the average 401(k) plummeted 24.3 percent in 2008, according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute.
Now that the economy and market are recovering, it檚 time to work on rebuilding your investment portfolio. Here are some steps you should take now.
Take it slow
Many consumers might understandably still be scared that the market might take another deep dive. So should you get back in now?
Sure, but do it cautiously.
"I talk to people who say, 'I檓 still a little nervous,檪" said Brian Bruce, director of the ENCAP Investments & LCM Group Alternative Asset Management Center at 麻豆社. "Timing is an incredibly difficult thing for people."
Get back into the market in baby steps by using an investment strategy called dollar-cost averaging.
That檚 where you buy securities in fixed dollar amounts at regular intervals, regardless of what direction the market is moving.
That way, as stock prices rise, you檙e buying less, and as prices fall, you檙e buying more.
"Don檛 have this as, 'I檝e got one bullet,檪" Bruce said. "Divide it up into four or five or six months and stick to a discipline and average yourself into the market over time."
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