Bucket number two is used for intermediate term goals. Intermediate term goals are different and unique, depending on your specific needs. Younger professionals my have an intermediate term goal of buying their first home, while others may be focused on beginning to save for a younger child’s college expenses. Maybe your intermediate goal is a second home, or it could even be a big “bucket list” vacation.
The intermediate term bucket is an interesting one because the various goals within could have different time horizons and strategies. When the goal is further off in the distance, you can take on more risk to help this money grow. As the date of the goal gets closer, we would want to back out of some of the risk, to insure the money will be there when it is needed. This is called creating an investment glide slope. It is important to build an investment glide slope that fits both the goal and time horizon.
A college fund is a perfect example. When a child is first born, college is far off in the distance providing the opportunity to take on an appropriate amount of risk and let money begin to grow. As the college years grow closer, we can wind out of the more risky assets and into safer investments.
Whatever the goal is, it’s probably unique to you, so you may want help building the correct glide slope to fit your goal. If this is something you have been thinking about, and would like to talk with a professional, please reach out to me at austin.smith@schulzwealth.com. I would love to talk with you about your goals and build a great investment strategy to help you get there.
*This is the third post of this series. The first can be found here. The second can be found here.
-Austin