Thoughts On Post College Pesonal Finance
I just graduate from school recently, and have been fortunate to come into a decent job right away. With this job comes extra cash. While I could certainly just spend it all on electronics (as a guy, I have a tendency to do this), I at least want to make an effort at saving and investing this extra cash. I’ve spent a fair bit of time research the best way to invest, and I’ve found out a lot of interesting things. Mostly, it would seem that there are no secret, sexy “get rich quick” methods. The proven way to invest is by regular savings and passive investing.
The best way to passively invest, from what I can tell, is to by low expense, low cost index funds. At the moment, I have just been buying a total market index fund, and a total bond market fund, with an 80/20 ratio. Simple, easy, low expense, and should perform well over time. Sure, it’s not that exciting, but I feel good know that while I won’t be beating the market, I will still be doing better than that large group of investors who fall behind the market, year after year. When you have this perspective, average is actually quite beautiful.