MONEY OBEDIENCE

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As you may know or guess, setting financial goals and establishing plans to reach them are probably the most important financial undertakings you will make in your lifetime. For example, saving for retirement is one of the best ways to ensure your future. The goal there is to have enough savings accumulated to make your final years as pleasant as possible. You might also want to save for big ticket items like homes, or educations for the next generation. Regardless, you want to maximize the number of dollars available at the time you're ready to spend them, of course keeping in mind the limit of your tolerance for taking risk.

You would want, then, to use the savings strategy that makes the most of your money and that also balances the various risks involved when saving for a goal. You might want to avoid investing in risky instruments (like stocks, let's say), but be careful about making that decision because doing so might add to the risk that you might not reach your long-term financial goals. You should think about the option of exposing yourself to market risk because investing in the stock market over the long run (especially if you use a dollar averaging strategy for the entire period when you invest) might make your dollar savings work harder to bring in even more dollars to get you closer to your financial goals.