Investing for Retirement?

Congratulations for considering one of the more important decisions you will make in your life!  We hope you’ll find answers to your questions, and solutions to your needs as you surf our site.

During the 25 years Heartland has helped shareholders invest for retirement, we’ve held a long-term vision of investing. We share the following investment thoughts because it has shaped the way our portfolio managers invest for the Funds, and it has helped our clients build their net worth over the long-term. We hope these ideas help you move forward on your road to retirement.

1. Investments that seek capital appreciation, such as stocks, have historically generated better rates of return over time than income generating investments (such as bonds). However, stocks also tend to be more volatile, meaning they may, at times, lose their value and, at other times, gain. 

2. The longer your investment time frame, the more you can afford to take the risk associated with this volatility. The sooner you start setting aside money for retirement, the more time you’ll have to potentially grow your money, and the more you’ll likely have for retirement.

The Rule of 72 provides an illustration of this idea.

3. If you start early, even if your equity investment temporarily falls in value, you are likely to have the time to recover assuming you are a long-term investor.

Even if you are in retirement, you may benefit or want to have some portion of your assets invested in equities because of the effects of inflation. We are living longer, as healthier lifestyles and advanced medicine prolong our life expectancy. Although great news, it does present a problem: For example, over a 25-year period of retirement, an average hypothetical rate of inflation of 2% will decrease your purchasing power by approximately 40%.

How Heartland can help

Heartland Advisors is a value-oriented, equity investment manager. We think long-term. Our equity mutual funds seek capital appreciation by aiming to buy stocks priced at a discount to their intrinsic worth. We encourage you to learn more about our easy-to-understand stock selection process and our tremendous long-term track record.