“It’s not how much money you make, but how much money you keep, how hard it works for you, and how many generations you keep it for.” — Robert Kiyosaki
Long-term investments refer to saving for an extended period of time. The range for long-term investments can be at least 10 years or more. The goal of long-term investments is mainly for big-picture costs such as retirement or for the future generation.
Often, long-term investors will use the buy and hold strategy where selected investments are purchased but not significantly changed for up to several years or more. Here are some great options for long-term investments.
MUTUAL FUNDS
With so many different types of mutual funds, the ideal mutual fund of long-term investors is stock mutual funds. Stock mutual funds, especially growth stock funds and aggressive growth stock funds, are suitable because they have historically achieved higher average rates of return than other investing and saving vehicles. Many long-term investors also like to invest in index funds for their low cost and their tendency to average good returns over long periods.
REAL ESTATE
All over the world, real estate is considered one of the safest sectors to invest in. The greatest appeal of real estate is that it doesn’t require any special skills. If you look at it from a statistics standpoint, the population is growing while the supply of land stays the same. Because of that, the demand will continue to grow meaning the returns from real estate will also continue to yield great returns in the long term.
INSURANCE
Like mutual funds, there are many great options of insurance both in short term and the long term. Life insurance is the most common type because it provides a measure of security for your loved ones. When deciding whether life insurance is a good investment, it’s important to understand that the variations of insurance plans generally fall into two categories, permanent, and term.
Because term life is designed to cover you for a set term, they are typically less expensive than permanent life insurance premiums. Because term life is designed to cover you for a set term, they are typically less expensive and more flexible than permanent life insurance.
STOCKS
The main reason to buy and hold stocks over the long term is that long-term investments almost always outperform the market when investors time their investments correctly. It isn’t unusual for stocks to drop 10% or 20% over a shorter period of time but riding out temporary market downswings is considered a sign of a good investor.
It is important to note that stocks rise and fall every day so knowledge of the companies you invest in would be key to looking at high returns. Compared to other investments like real estate, trading in stocks is still considered a risky game and requires a significant number of skills to be learned to truly master stock trading.
