Investing in the stock market has become more popular in recent years. A personal finance survey by Gallup revealing that 61% of adults in the United States own stock, the highest level since 2008.
A big contributor to this trend is the rise of financial advice on social media. A survey conducted by market research company Prolific and commissioned by Forbes Advisor found that 79% of millennials and Gen-Zers have looked to social media for financial advice.
However, social media tends to focus on the more trendy and exciting investing news that could also cost you thousands of dollars in fees in the long run. Here are three simple tips to invest more money while saving on unnecessary fees that often get overshadowed.
1) Consolidate Your Investment Accounts, Especially Old Employer-Sponsored Retirement Funds
As a financial coach, I learned that many people ignore their old employer-sponsored retirement plans after they leave their companies, not realizing they are paying extra administrative and maintenance costs for leaving these accounts in place.
It’s hard to tell this because as an employee, you mainly focus on how much money you are personally contributing without looking further into what fees are being charged for the investments you choose, as well as the fees to be part of your employer’s plan.
My husband left his 401(k) at a previous employer and after digging more into the situation, I learned he was paying around $100 per quarter to keep the account there without any added benefit. So we rolled it over into an individual retirement account at Fidelity to save money on fees.
If you have a retirement plan such as a 401(k) sitting with a past employer, it can be a bit of a pain. But rolling it over into an individual retirement account or into your current employer’s plan will help avoid potentially hundreds of dollars in unnecessary costs.
You’ll also get the added bonuses of having fewer usernames and passwords to remember and more control over how you want your money invested now and in the future.
2) Maximize Your Retirement Accounts Before Opening A Brokerage Account In An Investing App
Over the last few years, there has been growth in investing apps for beginners — including Acorns, Betterment and Robinhood — that tout their ability to make investing easy and fun. But by investing in these gamified apps that focus on taxable investing, you are leaving money on the table.
However, whenever I’ve asked people how much money they are investing in their employer retirement accounts, they usually:
- aren’t contributing at all;
- are contributing only up to their employer’s match; or
- are contributing to the match without knowing the actual dollar amount.
Before you invest in an app where you have to pay more taxes on your investments, try going up to the investing limit on your retirement plan before opening up a new account.
You instead can grow your investment portfolio that way, saving on the taxes you would pay either before tax in a traditional account or after tax in a Roth account. There are differences in taxes on these accounts, but both traditional and Roth retirement options save you much more in taxes than putting the same money into an investing app’s brokerage account.
The annual amount individuals can contribute to their 401(k), 403(b) or 457 plans in 2024 will increase to $23,000 — up from $22,500 for 2023.
The limit on annual contributions to an IRA increased for 2024 to $7,000 if you are younger than 50 years old and up to $8,000 if you are older than age 50.
3) Pay Down All Your Credit Card Debt Before You Keep Investing
Many financial advisors tell you to never stop investing, or to invest and pay down debt at the same time. But if you have any credit card debt, you’re losing money at a faster rate than money in any of the investments you would make, particularly if you are a newer investor focused on the basics.
The average credit card interest rate is 27.81%, according to Forbes Advisor’s weekly credit card rates report. That means hundreds or even thousands of dollars of your money are being eaten up by credit card interest rates and those percentages will continue to stay high in 2024.
The best part of paying down credit card debt is once it’s gone, you can put larger amounts of money into investments, without worrying as much about your bills. Investing often gets more attention and it can seem like you’re missing out on the excitement. But staying out of credit card debt before you invest more money will save you thousands of dollars and years of stress in the long run.
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