A

“I am happy to give you some things to consider and tools that will hopefully help. However, I’m afraid that I can’t give you a specific recommendation because I don’t know enough about your situation or your risk tolerance.

To frame the issue a bit, please allow me to digress slightly and share a story from early in my career.

I was working for another company at the time and had the good fortune of sharing an office with a more experienced planner who I’ll call Mark. Mark was a great Financial Planner that was loved by his clients – largely due to his no no-nonsense (and sometimes blunt) demeanor.

One afternoon I overheard him on a phone call with a prospective client who asked a question similar to yours. Appropriately, Mark responded with some questions of his own to try to determine which path to take. He asked questions like, “How comfortable are you with volatility?” and “How much do you need to earn?”

After a little back and forth conversation (which unfortunately seemed to just frustrate both parties), the prospect finally said something along the lines of, “Look, I just want to make as much as I can on this money!”

Mark paused for a second and then replied, “No problem…how long will it take you to get to Vegas?”

So, my approach is a lot different than Mark’s but his message has resonated with me for almost two decades since. Specifically, there is no such thing as a free lunch in the investing world. Generally speaking, in order to achieve higher potential return, you will have to take on more risk. If that risk (which could mean losing money) doesn’t fit into your comfort zone, then don’t take it.

To give yourself the best chance of getting return ON your money as well as return OF your money, I suggest building an investment portfolio. Start with the dollar amount you are trying to accumulate and work backward to determine the rate of return you need to earn on your $5,000. Once you know this figure, build a diversified portfolio that has historically generated this level of return within a level of volatility that lets you sleep at night.

To get a better idea of the type of portfolio structure that might fit your situation best, I encourage you to check out our online Portfolio Planner tool. It can be found by typing “Portfolio Planner” in the search box of usaa.com after logging in to your account. You input some basic data and the tool will provide portfolio recommendations based on your input. Of course, you can always supplement this by speaking with our team of salaried Financial Advisors at 800-771-9960.

Thank you for your question and best of luck to you!