{"id":4613,"date":"2015-05-14T14:30:36","date_gmt":"2015-05-14T18:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aspire-canada.com\/?p=4613"},"modified":"2017-02-19T12:17:17","modified_gmt":"2017-02-19T17:17:17","slug":"the-slackers-guide-to-saving-for-retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aspire-canada.com\/?p=4613","title":{"rendered":"The Slacker's Guide to Saving for Retirement"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"slacker-retirement-680x430\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Now more than ever, our lives are filled with competing obligations. Every day we divide our time\u00a0between work, caring for our families and friends, volunteering, improving our educations, running\u00a0errands and working out \u2014 among many other things. It can be exhausting!\u00a0At the end of the day, most of us just want to sit in front of the TV or our laptops and spend a little time\u00a0unwinding while watching \u201cGame of Thrones\u201d or cat videos. I like to call the inner voice that tempts us\u00a0to veg out in front of the latest \u201cScandal\u201d episode or watch that 10th cat video our inner-Lazy Person. We\u00a0spend so much time and energy fighting with that inner-Lazy Person to make more responsible use of our\u00a0time. But what if we can harness the power of the Lazy Person when it comes to something as important\u00a0and stress-inducing as saving for retirement?<\/p>\n

The last thing most of us want to think about at the end of a long day is what happened in the stock\u00a0market or what mutual funds we should buy next, but we often feel obligated to take control of our\u00a0finances. After all, most of us know that even if we follow all the thrifty tips we can find, if we don\u2019t\u00a0invest our money we won\u2019t have enough to retire on.\u00a0But retiring without adequate savings will be the unfortunate reality for many Americans. The Federal\u00a0Reserve\u2019s 2014 statistics showed that 31% of people had no money saved for retirement.\u00a0So, what if the simplest and most stress-free way to invest was also one of the best ways to invest your\u00a0money? Who knew it could be smart to be lazy?<\/p>\n

My Lazy-Person Epiphany<\/h3>\n

When I first started working, I wanted to put some of my savings into the stock market but I found that it\u00a0took a significant amount of time and energy to learn how the stock market worked and to research stocks. During this period, I made some unfortunate investments and lost what was a significant amount\u00a0of money for me at the time.\u00a0If I knew then what I know now, I would have gotten started investing in the stock market by investing in\u00a0index funds. An index fund is a fund that owns stocks of companies listed within particular stock market\u00a0indexes. These funds generally provide returns on your investment that keep pace with the average stock\u00a0market return. Index funds are what I like to call the Lazy Person\u2019s retirement savings vehicles, but they\u00a0also might be the Smart Person\u2019s retirement savings vehicles for the following reasons. Keep in mind that\u00a0index funds may not be a smart investment for everyone, and you should consult with a financial adviser\u00a0if you have any questions about how these investments work or the risks that come with them.<\/p>\n

1. We\u2019re More Likely to Take Action<\/h3>\n

When we perceive something to be difficult, we tend to put it off. The simpler we make something the\u00a0more likely we are to do it. If we expect ourselves to put time and effort into painstakingly learning how\u00a0the stock market works and then diligently researching individual stocks, we\u2019re less likely to pause our\u00a0cat videos and actually start our research.<\/p>\n

2. Picking Stocks Is Difficult to Do Well<\/h3>\n

Successfully picking particular stocks often requires you spend a significant amount of time researching\u00a0to be successful, and even then it\u2019s not foolproof. Even people who pick stocks for a living can make bad\u00a0calls. If you don\u2019t know much about investing, this can be a huge barrier to actually getting started. The\u00a0likelihood that an individual investor can beat the stock market is actually quite low.<\/p>\n

3. You\u2019re Automatically Diversified<\/h3>\n

Diversifying your investments is key because it helps you mitigate your risk. For example, if you invested\u00a0only in tech stocks and the tech sector does poorly your entire investment portfolio would lose money\u00a0simultaneously. If, however, you had some tech stocks, some energy stocks, and some consumer good\u00a0stocks, one sector could perform poorly and not affect the overall return of your portfolio significantly.\u00a0One of the upsides to index funds is that they automatically diversify your investments, which means that\u00a0you don\u2019t have to spend a lot of time picking stocks from diverse sectors.<\/p>\n

How to Do It<\/h3>\n

You ca set up an automatic payment into your retirement or investment accounts to take one step out of\u00a0the retirement saving process. Rather than having to make a contribution on a monthly or annual basis, set\u00a0up a paycheck deduction or an automatic bank transfer into your retirement or investment accounts that\u00a0you don\u2019t have to think about or consciously remember to do. While you might have to consciously buy\u00a0index funds every month or two if you can\u2019t set up automatic purchases, you\u2019re still making the saving\u00a0aspect as easy as possible.<\/p>\n

This story is an Op\/Ed contribution to Credit.com and does not necessarily represent the views of the\u00a0company or its partners.<\/p>\n

\n

This article originally appeared on Credit.com.<\/p>\n

This article by Amanda Reaume was distributed by the Personal Finance Syndication Network.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now more than ever, our lives are filled with competing obligations. Every day we divide our time\u00a0between work, caring for our families and friends, volunteering, improving our educations, running\u00a0errands and working out \u2014 among many other things. It can be exhausting!\u00a0At the end of the day, most of us just want to sit in front…<\/p>\n

READ MORE<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":3301,"featured_media":4614,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","pmpro_default_level":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","pmpro-has-access"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Slacker's Guide to Saving for Retirement<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Slacker's Guide to Saving for Retirement\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/aspire-canada.com\/?p=4613\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta 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