Scared of the Stock Market? 3 Smart Ways to Keep Investing

The S&P 500 just entered a bear market for the second time in 2 1/2 years. With many stocks seeing much larger declines than the 21% drop in the index, it's been hard for investors to feel confident about putting more money to work in the market.

As hard as it is to see newly purchased stocks immediately drop in value, there's no alternative to sticking to a smart long-term investing plan if you want to reach your financial goals. To make it easier to stay the course, though, this list of three things you can do should help give you some perspective and make you feel better about continuing to invest.

The simplest way to stick with a long-term investing plan is to put it on autopilot. A lot of investors do this by setting a specific dollar amount to take from each paycheck or from their bank accounts every month. That savings can then go to a brokerage account or mutual fund company for investment.

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Source Fool.com