Smart moms want the best for their families all the time. Well, all moms do! This means every waking hour, moms are always on the lookout to protect their families, as well as nurture, love, and care for them. This protection doesn’t just include love, but also protecting the family’s financial future and stability. This is where the prospect of making investments come in. But, given the complexities that come with investments, it’s also not surprising that many moms may feel so intimidated with the idea of investing.
Every mom can be a smart mom, and you can be one yourself by being wise with your expenses. Apart from having a monthly budget, being smart means having enough placed for savings in the bank and other investments. When it comes to the latter, you further have to narrow your options to ensure you’re investing in no less than the best possible options for your family.
If you’re a newbie at investments, it’s normal to feel lost as to where and how to begin. Investing is no easy thing to accomplish, and there’s a lot of decision-making to do and information to know about your chosen investments. After reading this article, you’ll walk away as a smarter mom. Below, you’ll get to know some of the best investment options you may want to consider.
1. Gold
Investing in gold is one of the best options, hence, making it on the top of this list. For starters, one of the easiest ways to invest in gold is to buy tangible gold. For many moms, this means investing in gold jewelry. Why? Not only can you wear it, but it’s an asset that appreciates. It can also serve as an heirloom piece to give to your children when they’re older.
Because the value appreciates, your kids can also make good use of gold jewelry. Should they come across a difficult financial time wherein they’ll have to sell or pawn those pieces of jewelry, they’re faster to sell and pawn than other types of assets, like real estate. So, there’s fast cash secured.
But, investing in gold jewelry isn’t the only way for you to go. There are other investment opportunities you can consider as well. Some of these include investing in gold bars, purchasing bullions, gold stocks, gold IRAS, and many others. And, doing so comes with so many benefits as well, such as the following:
- It provides a hedge against inflation. Historically, the price of gold tends to rise when the cost of living increases. This means it’s not affected by inflation. In fact, gold investments may protect your budget from inflation as your purchasing power won’t decrease. This can significantly help you maintain and keep up with your monthly budget, even when the economy is suffering from extreme inflation.
- It’s a good asset for portfolio diversification. When you want to diversify your family’s asset portfolio, this essentially means choosing investments that aren’t closely related to each other. You may have heard people say that you should never to put your investments on a single basket—indeed, there’s a lot of truth to this.
The main goal of portfolio diversification should be to have different kinds of assets, such that when one fluctuates, you’ll have other assets to protect you against losses. This way, you won’t be on the losing end. Gold is one of the best assets for this purpose as, historically, it also has a negative correlation with other financial instruments, like stocks. This means that even when the value of stocks decreases and becomes uncertain, gold stays stable and unaffected.
If you’re keen on getting started with investing in gold, an Oxford gold IRA review, among many other sources you can also read through, can bulk up your knowledge on this matter.
2. Life Insurance
This second item on the list may seem like an obvious one, but a lot of moms, and parents in general, who are still skeptical about life insurance. Some focus on retirement planning and paying for their health insurance, to the effect that they can’t even be bothered to consider having life insurance. However, a smart mom will surely think about investing in one.
The proceeds of your life insurance won’t benefit or affect you, but it would your children. And, given that death is definitely certain, with only the question as to when it would be, a smart mom will always protect their children from that uncertainty. You need to leave money and assets to them, especially if they’re still young and unable to fend for themselves, to cover for their basic needs, especially their education.
So, as a parent, it makes sense to invest in life insurance, and it’s even more important to do so if you’re a single parent. Here are compelling reasons why you should:
- Your life insurance policy may help cover for your debts, like a private student loan debt, such that if you die and those are still unpaid, your heirs won’t have to suffer being the ones to pay for those debts.
- You have a business, and your life insurance proceeds may help ensure your business and personal assets still remain strong, even after your demise, so your children can carry on with the business.
- You work a high-risk job, wherein the risk of a serious accident is higher. Thus, you need to give your family that financial protection that even if you may suffer a serious accident that may cost your life, your kids’ future will still be secured.
3. Save Money In The Bank
One of the easiest, most secure investment options for moms is to save money in the bank. This means having a savings account not just for yourself, but in your children’s names as well.
Saving money in the bank may not have high returns like other investments, but it gives you more security as it’s more stable. You know your money is absolutely safe. Most importantly, should you have any financial emergency in the family, you have your savings to cover for such expenses. You can instantly withdraw cash to cover for those emergencies. This is the benefit of having liquid cash.
While it may seem challenging to save money as a mom with so many expenses to cover, it’s actually quite important to do so. There are many benefits you can gain from saving money in the bank, and these include:
- It helps in emergencies, such that you’ll no longer have to burn a hole in your family’s monthly budget just to cover for those emergencies, or, worse, fall into debt.
- It’s a cushion against unemployment, especially with an uncertain economy, such that should you or your spouse lose their job, you’ll still have enough to live by with your emergency savings.
- It gives you peace of mind and financial freedom when you’re comforted with the fact that you have a buffer for financial uncertainties, while still enabling your family to enjoy a few luxuries from time-to-time, like eating out or going on holidays.
- It helps finance your kids’ education. Among the many other things you can give your children, nothing beats the security of having a degree to be competitive with job hiring.
If you’re keen on seriously starting on saving today, there are many ways you can achieve that goal. Even when you’re on a tight budget and even when your expenses seem to constantly be on the rise, you can still save, as long as you’re smart about your expenses. Some of the best tips include:
- Enjoy staying at home or teach your kids that having fun doesn’t necessarily always have to mean going out.
- Make a menu plan so that when you’re shopping in the grocery store, you only purchase the ingredients and food items which you’re certain your family absolutely needs.
- Keep your car and other appliances well-maintained so you can avoid costly repairs in the future.
- Stick to a holiday budget so you won’t have to go broke, especially during the yuletide season, just to give gifts to your family and children.
- Say yes to hand-me-downs, or don’t shy away from shopping used clothing and other items.
4. Real Estate
If you have the money for it or if you’ve already finished off your current home’s mortgage payments, it’s a good idea to invest in another strong asset: real estate. If you want to have passive income coming in while owning assets, which are tangible and stable, then opting to invest in the real estate industry is definitely a good choice.
The best way to go about with this is to purchase a property that you can renovate or flip, and which you’ll eventually rent out. Your family can enjoy income coming in from the rental payments, which can help you in your monthly budget or add to your savings.
If, in the future, you’ll find the need to resell the property you’ve invested in, you can rest, knowing that you’re gaining a good profit as the property’s value will now have appreciated from the time you first purchased it.
Final Thoughts
Now that you’re equipped with this list of financial opportunities you can embark on, you should feel more confident as to where and how to begin. Often, the hardest part is in starting as it’s normal to succumb to the complexities of investments. But, this doesn’t mean it’s entirely impossible for moms to achieve.
Whatever investment choice you do decide to make, however, the most important thing to remember is to pick wisely. You have to be certain that your chosen financial investments deliver and achieve your intended goals for the family. And, whenever you feel unsure, seek the help of expertise of investment advisors to be certain you’re staying clear from costly mistakes.