If you are a “classic baby boomer,” then you are likely a committed and steady adult with a healthy amount of savings in the bank for a rainy day. In that case, this article should appeal to your sensibilities as an investor, while also providing the best potential outcomes for growing your pot.
While the differences between millennials and baby boomers may sometimes be exaggerated, the truth is that the two generations certainly have very different approaches to careers, money, and investing. What this means, among other things, is that the ideal investment strategies for each group are going to be different. Baby boomers are considered to be wealthy, committed, steady, and competitive, especially when compared to their “flaky” and non-committal millennial counterparts.
What does this mean from an investment point of view? It means logical, reasoned choices. It means long-term planning, and it means a diverse portfolio. In this post, we’re going to look at some of the best investment strategies for baby boomers.
Gold and Precious Metals
One of the best investments for baby boomers is gold or other precious metals. This may take the form of a gold IRA, or even investing in jewelry and other types of gold. Whatever the case, investing in gold makes a lot of sense as a particularly stable, long-term investment that mirrors the stable, long-term mindset of a baby boomer.
Here are just some great reasons to invest in gold:
Gold Keeps its Value
The first thing to recognize is that gold keeps its value very reliably over time. It is one of the few assets – financial or otherwise – that can actually go up even in an economic downturn.
Many people mistakenly assume that fluctuating gold prices are a result in changes in the value of the dollar. This is not the case however and actually, the only thing that can affect the price of gold is the supply and demand. Seeing as gold is very scarce, it’s unlikely anything will majorly change this fact1.
It’s a Staple in Any Diverse Portfolio
For that reason, gold is a staple of any smart and diverse investment portfolio. In fact, most financial advisors will recommend that you add at least some gold to yours, just so that you can be absolutely sure that bad market conditions or a financial crisis won’t completely wipe you out.
The best investment portfolios should balance low risk, low yield investments with high risk, high yield investments. The high risk gambits are the ones that will make sure you’re making a lot of money, while the low risk options will help you to stay safe.
But gold can even be high risk too if you want – by investing in gold junior stocks.
Our Economy Isn’t Great At the Moment
With this in mind, now is a very good time to invest in gold. Why? Because our economy is a mess.
It’s common knowledge that we’re going through a time of serious economic turmoil right now and that we’re experiencing the worst crisis since the 1970s. This has only been exacerbated by our government trying to print more dollars, thereby hurting their value and driving inflation. The result is that the dollar is not safe anymore and neither are many stocks and shares.
It is times like these that investing in precious metals such as gold makes a LOT of sense.
Reading the Financial News
As any investor knows, there are countless things that you can invest in and many things that you can put money and time into for a financial reward. However, of all these things perhaps the very most important is to invest in yourself. And that means not so much investing money, but investing time and effort.
Again, this mirrors the mindset of the boomer: someone used to work at things to get the best results.
You might be wondering how you can invest in yourself and what this has to do with money. But the answer is simple – by learning and developing yourself to the point where you are able to make the best possible investments and use your money the most wisely. At the end of the day when you really think about it you probably started off in life with about the same capital and the same privileges as someone like Richard Branson.
In fact, Richard Branson famously got relatively poor grades at school and never got any higher education. There are few differences between the two of you in terms of input, but in output there is a substantial monetary divide. The only thing that was different for the two of you (or at least the key thing) was the person who was in charge of increasing the value of that money. It’s you who decides how to invest your money, it’s you who makes financial decisions such as which house to buy and which bank to use, and it’s you who comes up with exit strategies and ways to add to your investments.
In other words, improving your knowledge of finance and investments will greatly improve your ability to make those investments. There is plenty of software out there designed to help you trade on the stock market, but none of these quite have the edge of the human brain which allows you to look at trends in the world and to know which industries are going to be big soon, and which brands and companies have potential to grow.
And anyway, relying on software to make trades is surely a much more millennial approach!
By reading about the stock market, the economy, and the industries you’re interested in trading in, you can hugely increase your comeback on your investments. Even if you do use software (and many of these programs are very useful) then doing the research first and again putting time into your knowledge of those programs will greatly help you to get the best software as it comes out.
Reading something like a personal finance and stock market investment blog then will allow you to understand how best to handle your finances. By staying up to date in this way on the economy, on finances, on industry then you will know when the best times to buy and sell stocks and trades are, which industries are thriving, where to buy property and more. The more time you spend doing this the more you will know and the more your investments will earn for you. So don’t just invest in stocks, shares and properties, but invest in yourself too and train yourself to be the very best you can be. Visit a personal finance and stock market investment blog, buy a book and get practicing.
Ready to learn more about making the very best investments? The links below can help you get started!