Are you married and have kids? Follow these ten investment tips

Let us address this quite common problem being faced by many and follow the below mentioned investment priorities—
1.     Clear your debt-
It is important to first pay off your debt before proceeding towards any investments, whatsoever. This is because the risk-adjusted return on paying off all your debts is much better as compared to what can probably be earned on your financial assets.
 
2.     Invest –
After having cleared your debt, now you can proceed towards following your investment plans because the expected returns on financial assets are much better to beat the debt repayment especially when the lending rates are quite low. This will help you offset many risks including losing your job and feeling compelled to sell your house when the prices are considerably too low. Meanwhile, becoming a homeowner is not liked by everyone in the wake of high costs involved in maintenance of the home. Moreover, many people have to move from one city to another due to the nature of their jobs. There are some who also think that the home market is a bit too high for them.
 
 
3.     Dollar-cost averaging--
Being married and having kids and also having a mortgage, you might feel in a tight money condition. But the truth is that investment in the stock market might be a good option. Of course, you can take a decision regarding this by considering about dollar-cost averaging. You can choose to set aside a few dollars for investing in a mutual fund.
 
4.     Value-cost averaging—
By value-cost averaging, we mean to say is that we need to adjust our contributions towards investment so as to keep a targeted or expected value constant. Value-cost averaging is, therefore, much better idea as compared to dollar-cost averaging.
 
5.     Index funds/Mutual funds---
Investing in mutual funds is the best decision for those who want to go for dollar-cost averaging. By doing so, investors can diversify small amount into several stocks. And among the mutual funds, index funds are, undoubtedly, the best. Select an index fund that charges minimum fees, an example of low cost index funds is TD e-Series Funds.
 
6.     Go for mutual funds that are sold directly—
Among the mutual funds, invest in those sold directly by the companies. You can always take the help of front-line staff for asset allocation and related investing tasks.
 
7.     DRiPs—
DRiPs or Dividend reinvestment plans are meant to invest small amounts over time. Companies offering such plans pay dividends. You can reinvest dividends without any charge and you can choose from SPPs (Share Purchase Plans) that allow investors to buy shares from the company directly and also at discount from the market price.
 
8.     Asset allocation---
It involves spreading your savings over bonds, stocks and other financial assets over registered and non-registered accounts.
 
9.     Consulting a financial advisor—
It is best to be your own consultant while taking financial decisions relating to investments since most of the financial advisors are least interested in investments below $100000. Moreover, they might not offer high level of service.
 
10.  Parents---
Your parents are also heading towards old age. And you need to keep in mind that being old, they are more vulnerable to numerous financial scams. Hence, its your moral obligation to take care for your aging parents.