Save or invest (2024)

FAQs

Save or invest? ›

Saving is generally seen as preferable for investors with short-term financial goals, a low risk tolerance, or those in need of an emergency fund. Investing may be the best option for people who already have a rainy-day fund and are focused on longer-term financial goals or those who have a higher risk tolerance.

Imagine you wish to amass $3000 monthly from your investments, amounting to $36,000 annually. If you park your funds in a savings account offering a 2% annual interest rate, you'd need to inject roughly $1.8 million into the account.

If you don't have an emergency fund, you should probably build one even before putting your savings money toward retirement or other goals. Aim to build the fund to three months of expenses, then split your savings between a savings account and investments until you have six to eight months' worth tucked away.

Saving money is a cornerstone of financial well-being, providing stability, security, and opportunities for long-term growth. Whether you're saving for emergencies, future expenses, or retirement, cultivating a habit of saving is essential for achieving financial independence and realizing your goals.

If you have more than one goal you'd like to put your money towards, you might consider a combination of saving (for short-term goals) and investing (for long-term goals). Work out how much you can afford to put away each month. Creating a budget can help you do this.

Investing as little as $200 a month can, if you do it consistently and invest wisely, turn into more than $150,000 in as soon as 20 years. If you keep contributing the same amount for another 20 years while generating the same average annual return on your investments, you could have more than $1.2 million.

You'd need to invest around $13,000 per month to save a million dollars in five years, assuming a 7% annual rate of return and 3% inflation rate. For a rate of return of 5%, you'd need to save around $14,700 per month.

Investing provides the potential for (significantly) higher returns than saving. As your investments grow, they allow you to take advantage of compounding to accelerate gains. Investing offers many different access points and strategies, from individual stocks and bonds to mutual or exchange-traded funds.

The 50/30/20 budget rule states that you should spend up to 50% of your after-tax income on needs and obligations that you must have or must do. The remaining half should be split between savings and debt repayment (20%) and everything else that you might want (30%).

The 4% rule limits annual withdrawals from your retirement accounts to 4% of the total balance in your first year of retirement. That means if you retire with $1 million saved, you'd take out $40,000. According to the rule, this amount is safe enough that you won't risk running out of money during a 30-year retirement.

Is it better to save in cash or bank? ›

It's a good idea to keep a small sum of cash at home in case of an emergency. However, the bulk of your savings is better off in a savings account because of the deposit protections and interest-earning opportunities that financial institutions offer.

Saving provides a safety net and a way to achieve short-term goals, while investing has the potential for higher long-term returns and can help achieve long-term financial goals. However, investing also comes with the risk of losing money.

Savings account benefits include safety for your savings, interest earnings and easy access to your money. However, savings accounts may have drawbacks, such as variable interest rates, minimum balance requirements and fees.

If you're unable to cover three to six months' worth of expenses with savings, it's best to prioritize that before beginning to invest for long-term goals like retirement.

To determine which investment is best for you, pinpoint your time horizon, risk tolerance, and liquidity needs. Cash equivalents are usually best for short- and medium-term financial goals, while bonds and stocks are better for medium- and long-term ones.

Stock-market based investments tend to do better than cash over the long-term, providing an opportunity for greater returns on any money invested over time. You can lower the level of risk you take when you invest by spreading your money across different types of investments. This is called diversification.

Making $4,000 a month based on your investments alone is not a small feat. For example, if you have an investment or combination of investments with a 9.5% yield, you would have to invest $500,000 or more potentially. This is a high amount, but could almost guarantee you a $4,000 monthly dividend income.

A stock portfolio focused on dividends can generate $1,000 per month or more in perpetual passive income, Mircea Iosif wrote on Medium. “For example, at a 4% dividend yield, you would need a portfolio worth $300,000.

To generate $5,000 per month in dividends, you would need a portfolio value of approximately $1 million invested in stocks with an average dividend yield of 5%. For example, Johnson & Johnson stock currently yields 2.7% annually. $1 million invested would generate about $27,000 per year or $2,250 per month.