Many folks want a savings plan where they can actually make money, not just miserly interest. Also, many would consider investing money in stocks and bonds if they felt it could be done without much risk. Here’s a custom-built savings plan and investment program I offered clients when I was an active financial planner.
We’ll use Jack as our example. Jack wanted a savings plan that was safe and paid more interest than he could earn at the bank. Plus, he didn’t want too much money accumulating in the bank where it was so readily available because he was always tempted to take a withdrawal and spend it.
Jack had never been into investing money in stocks and bonds to make money because he abhorred risk and did not know how to invest. He also disliked and did not trust the investment industry or those who worked in it. Because he knew he needed an investment program as well as a savings plan if he wanted to earn higher returns, he decided to talk to me.
We started Jack’s first financial adventure with $600 per month flowing (automatically) from his checking account to a large mutual fund family. All of it went directly into a money market fund where it was safe and earned a competitive interest rate. Plus, this gave us flexibility because money could easily be moved from there to any of the other funds offered by the fund family.
The money market fund was earmarked as his savings plan. Of the $600 that went in each month, $300 would stay there. The other $300 was his investment plan and would automatically flow each month into three different funds, $100 each.
The three other funds were: a short-term bond fund, an intermediate-term bond fund and a conservative stock fund. The bond funds gave him more interest in the form of dividends, which were simply automatically reinvested to buy more shares. The stock fund offered both dividends (that were also reinvested) and growth.
Jack was now investing money as well as saving it. He was finally an investor, accepting only a moderate to low level of risk overall. As money flowed from his money market fund each month to his bond funds and stock fund, each $100 purchase would automatically buy more shares when the price was down and fewer when the price was higher.
This is called DOLLAR COST AVERAGING, and it works to lower the average cost per share. Plus, as Jack’s dividends reinvested periodically he would accumulate more shares.
There you have it. A savings plan and an investment program all in one simple package. Jack was still a client of mine 20 years later and eventually allowed me to be a bit more aggressive in my recommendations. But he still does not trust the investment industry.