An Easy Rule for Picking Investments

Not sure how to balance your portfolio? Here's one simple solution. No math required.

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🚨 Here’s what you’ll learn today in one money minute (or less) 🚨

  • đź’ą How to maximize your portfolio đź’ą

  • đź’¸ Where to buy bonds đź’¸

  • ⚡ You’re not getting old, you’re getting better.⚡

What now?

So, you’ve started investing, built a portfolio, and now you’re wondering, What’s next? Managing your investments doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, with the right approach, you can keep things simple and still grow your wealth over time. I cover this topic in depth in my new book The Money School. But here it is in a money minute.

One place for all your investing

Make 2025 the year you invest in your future, with Public. Public is an investing platform where you can invest in stocks, options, bonds, ETFs, and crypto —all in one place. And with Public, you’re not in it alone. You can ask Public’s built-in AI tool, Alpha, questions about the market like “What are the top movers today?” or “How is the S&P 500 doing today?” Alpha doesn’t just tell you if an asset is moving; it tells you WHY the asset is moving so you can actually understand what’s driving your portfolio performance.

Get started today HERE!

You are your portfolio

Of course, we all have different financial goals and so there can’t be a one-size-fits-all strategy for investing. But if you’re looking for a place to start, one of the simplest strategies experts use for managing investing portfolios is the age strategy. This method adjusts your investments based on your risk tolerance over time. When you’re young, you can afford to take bigger risks, so experts allocate more heavily in stocks. As you get closer to retirement, it makes more sense to opt into more conservative investments, because you’ll probably need that money soon— so, you likely wouldn’t want to be 66 with a very volatile portfolio, because if a dip in your investments coincides with the time you need that money… well, that can get tricky. So, experts shift focus on bonds as retirement inches closer.

A general rule of thumb is to have your age as the percentage of your portfolio in bonds, with the rest in stocks. At 25, that means 25% bonds and 75% stocks. At 75, it flips to 75% bonds and 25% stocks. This keeps your investments aggressive when you can handle risk and conservative when you need stability. If you’re looking for an easy way to invest in bonds, check out my favorite platform for bond investing HERE.

Of course, this strategy requires a little maintenance. If you set up automatic investments and the stock market does well, your portfolio might end up with a higher percentage of stocks than you planned. That’s why checking in at least once a quarter is important— probably more as you get older. Take a look at your investments, see if they’re still aligned with your goals, and make adjustments as needed. If you’re someone who enjoys managing your portfolio, this might be a fun exercise. If not, treat it like a dentist appointment—put it on the calendar and get it done.

xo,

All investing involves the risk of loss, including loss of principal. Brokerage services for US-listed, registered securities, options and bonds in a self-directed account are offered by Public Investing, Inc., member FINRA & SIPC. Cryptocurrency trading services are offered by Bakkt Crypto Solutions, LLC (NMLS ID 1890144), which is licensed to engage in virtual currency business activity by the NYSDFS. Cryptocurrency is highly speculative, involves a high degree of risk, and has the potential for loss of the entire amount of an investment. Cryptocurrency holdings are not protected by the FDIC or SIPC.

Alpha is an AI research tool powered by GPT-4.  Alpha is experimental and may generate inaccurate responses.  Output from Alpha should not be construed as investment research or recommendations, and should not serve as the basis for any investment decision. Public makes no warranties about its accuracy, completeness, quality, or timeliness of any Alpha out. Please independently evaluate and verify any such output for your own use case.