It’s easy to get too focussed on investment returns. There is a lot of noise saying we should do this, that or the other to get our investments performing better.
Often this can lead us to believe that, if only we were a bit smarter, we can outfox the market.
But take a step back for a moment. Can any of us really be expected to be better investors than the hundred and thousands of MBAs, PhDs, etc., that make investing their 9-5 jobs?
It’s highly unlikely that we can expect to do better than the throng of experts that make investment their lives and livelihoods.
However, there are some very simple ways in which we can boost our “returns”. Here are three plus a bonus fourth:
- Spending 1% pa less / putting aside 1% pa more effectively boosts returns by 1%!! If your monthly budget is £4,000 I bet you anything you like you can find £40 of “fat” in it. And look to repeat the same trick every couple of years.
- Use passive rather than active investments and pick the lowest cost platform you can. Probably worth an easy 1% pa.
- Engage with a financial planner – anyone half-decent should be able to spot at least 1% pa of additional efficiencies, having covered their own costs.
- And the bonus fourth – combine all three and improve by 3% pa.
Those are easy, marginal annual gains available to everyone all the time.
And that extra 3% pa soon adds up; you could be almost doubling your total return each year.