Common Mistakes People Make When Investing Long Term

Investment planning is the process of matching your financial goals and objectives with your financial resources. Having one without the other is impossible as it’s an essential element of financial planning.

However, we often see questionable advertisements from financial organizations offering investment deals that seem too perfect. We also increasingly come across misleading investment and financial advice on our social applications, making the whole process of successfully investing and seeing returns even more complicated and sketchy. This is why choosing to go with an investment planning, management, and financial advisor rather than attempting DIY solutions to reach your monetary goals is essential and necessary.

To help you avoid some basic errors that could prove costly, Westgroup Financial Management Inc. has compiled a list of common mistakes people make when investing for the long term.

Forgetting that passive income beats active management over the long term
Passive and active investing puts your money to work in the markets, but which is better is often debated and misunderstood. Active investing is probably what you think of when you envision traders on Wall Street, though nowadays, you can do it from the comfort of your smartphone. This investing typically requires a high level of market analysis and expertise to determine the best time to buy or sell investments. In contrast, passive investment management is a strategy centered on buying and holding assets for the long term. It’s best described as a hands-off approach. Here, you choose security, and then you hold on through ups and downs with a longer-range goal in mind. Passive investing has lower costs, decreased risk, increased transparency, and higher returns.

Forgetting what their investing goals are
Investment goals can be spread into three branches, depending on age, income, and outlook. Age can be further subdivided into three distinct segments young and starting out, middle-aged and family building, and old and self-directed. This said it is very easy to get lost in the world of investment and forget your end goals. Setting financial goals will provide direction and meaning for your investing efforts. They make it easier for you to make sacrifices or stick to a budget because you know what outcome you’re striving for.

Letting short-term, current events affect their decisions
In general, short-term investment decisions are the decisions related to the bills, receivables, inventories, levels of cash and debtors, etc. Letting your circumstances dictate your future is a mistake. If you can find a way past the obstacles, the rewards are peace of mind and financial security for you and your loved ones.

Letting emotions get the best of them
Logic is critical when it comes to investing and making money. Getting emotional is not especially good when it comes to index-style investing. According to experts, one should not let emotions drive investing decisions. Accept the emotions but do not react. Calm your mind, take an objective view, consider the event’s impact (what it is and how long it will last), and then decide if you need to change anything in your investing pattern.

To avoid these and other mistakes, reach out to the experts at Westgroup Financial Management Inc. We match your financial goals and objectives with your financial resources to help produce the results you are looking for. Our sound investment planning is a core component of building a financial plan, and we are skilled in investments and the investment planning process, so you can rest assured that your money is in safe hands.

For a complete list of our services, please click here. If you have any questions about investment planning and financial management, we’d love to hear from you. Please contact us here.