Everyone understands the importance of investing their money whenever possible, using their money to make money and freeing themselves from the “time = money” equation that stops people from being wealthy more often than maybe anything else.
At the same time, not everyone has a skyhigh amount of risk tolerance that lets them throw all of their life savings into different investment strategies – especially those with an anything but guaranteed return on that investment.
Lots of people have lost everything they have gambling on investments like speculative stock options, volatile penny stock securities, the real estate world, crypto currency, and that just barely begins to scratch the surface of risky investments today.
If you want to know what the least risky investment options are that can generate wealth without you having a panic attack every time you jump in, you’ll be happy with the inside information we highlight below.
Index Funds
Index funds are (generally) the safest stock investment you can make over the long haul.
Rather than trying to time the market, buying certain stock options and securities and hoping they go up and praying they don’t go down, index funds are more of a long-term strategy for generating wealth that you’ll want to “buy and hold”.
These index funds are made up of a multitude of different stock options and companies in the markets all mashed up into one, providing you with an opportunity to invest in entire blocks of different markets depending on the index fund you choose to move forward with.
If you want a truly passive and sort of “set it and forget it” way to play the stock market, this is where you want to put your money.
Dividend Paying Stocks
We can tell you with 100% certainty that the stock market isn’t anywhere near as safe as cold, hard cash, a savings account, or purchasing government debt in the form of bills and bonds – but we can tell you that dividend stocks are designed to provide you with a unique opportunity for wealth without a lot of downside.
Dividend paying stocks have significantly lower levels of volatility and risk compared to more traditional high-growth/high-volume stocks, in large part because they pay cash dividends. You’ll see some volatility – but not much – from time to time and can also enjoy a bit of passive income from the dividends themselves (that’s if you decide not to roll those dividends into more stock, which may be a different route you want to take).
Treasury Bills and Bonds
As a general rule, it is patently impossible to lose money when purchasing treasury bills, notes, bonds, or inflation protected securities directly from the United States Treasury itself.
Most treasury bills mature within 12 months (and sometimes less), with treasury notes maturing in 10 years, bonds maturing in 30 years, and TIPS having principles and payouts that go up and down in parallel with inflation.
You might not see a skyhigh return on your investment with these kinds of options, but there’s no better way to guarantee that you’ll get some return on your money – as long as you allow these Treasury investments to mature fully before you cash them out.
All in all, there’s no such thing as a 100% risk-free investment but you can get pretty close with the options that we have highlighted above.
If you’re really risk adverse but want to grow your money with your own money the choices that we broke down earlier are where you’re going to want to focus your research for sure.
These are the kinds of options that can transform your financial future with a more patient approach to growing your money, but are going to protect your investment more than any of the traditional options available that might otherwise wipe out your nest egg entirely – way before you ever have a chance to take advantage of the money that you have worked so hard to generate in the first place.
As always, do your research and due diligence before you jump right in and be sure that you are confident in the investment decisions you make before you pull the trigger. This is your wealth, your money, and your future and you have to be as responsible as possible before you do anything.