What should be a bigger priority for me: saving for my children's education or saving for retirement?
This one hurts me. It hurts me to say this, because I've got children, and I really like 'em a lot. It's gotta be your retirement. I know that doesn't feel right as a parent, but if you have to make a choice, there are scholarships and there are loans for college. Nobody ever got a scholarship for retirement. And so this is one where you need to strap your oxygen mask on before assisting others, and — as much as it hurts me — to put yourself first.
The stock market's had a good year so far. Is now a good time to invest?
Yeah! Wow, what a difference. Remember December? I remember sitting, December 24th, when the market was down like 2.4 or 2.5% and it was just like [choking sound]. And it's up 16% since then. Now it feels like, gosh, maybe this isn't a good time to invest. But let's be perfectly clear: You have no idea. And anybody who says they have an idea has no idea. No one knows where the market is going from one week or one year to the next. There are just too many factors into it. So you want to — for those of you who are familiar with the term — dollar-cost average. For those of you who aren't, you want to invest through up markets and down, a bit out of every paycheck, sometimes it'll be lower, sometimes it'll be higher, and then it evens out over time which doesn't feel sexy, but actually is very sexy. It's very sexy in order to earn market returns, because most folks don't.
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