Chapter 7. Developing Your Investment Strategy

Here's a big-time question for you: Do you know if you can afford your own retirement? If you're going to need $50,000 a year to maintain your lifestyle, but you have only $350,000 in assets at the moment, do you have any idea how you're going to get from where you are financially to where you need to be?

Maybe you're not even close to retirement. Maybe you're still changing diapers or trying to keep an eye on teenagers. But there are still big-time questions to be considered. Have you sat down and figured out if you can pay for their expected education expenses in five or ten years, or will you need to take out a loan (or several)?

Your investment strategy must match your life goals and circumstances — not the other way around. In thinking about future needs and wants, it's helpful to start by looking at your current lifestyle, but your investment plan must be broad enough to cover your future lifestyle, too.

In this chapter, we take you through a systematic, step-by-step process that will help you to build the investment portfolio that best suits your needs. We guarantee ...

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