If you are planning on setting up a retirement account, then it is important that you understand how to invest your money. It is not something that you should undertake lightly. The method you choose to use will determine how much your investments will grow. The following items are important to understand if you are self directing a retirement account and do not want your investments to stagnate.

Diversify Your Account With a Portfolio Building Service

The easiest method to use to make sure you have a diverse portfolio is to use a Financial Model Portfolio Building Service. These services are staffed by experts whose job it is to analyze the financial markets and make informed recommendations to clients based on their current financial goals. The analysts at an investment portfolio building service will be able to provide you with a variety of options, and these will allow you to make an informed investment choice. If there is difficulty understanding the financial models, then the analysts will be able to provide a comprehensive explanation of the investment choices and why they match the client's goals.

Spread out Your Investments: Choose a Percentage

Once you have been provided with the different investment models, the next step is to decide on an investment percentage. While some investment models might provide a good percentage mix (60% stocks and 40% bonds, for instance) you might want to slightly tailor it. If that is the case, you can certainly look to slightly alter the percentages with the assistance of the analyst. They will be able to slightly alter the model to fit your specific needs.

Determine An Investing Schedule

The final thing you will want to do is determine an investing schedule. Most professional investment advisors will recommend that you set up something along the lines of DCA (dollar cost averaging) as opposed to lump sum investing. The benefits of investing over a longer time period is that you do not have to try and "time the market". If you invest all of your money in one shot, you might end up buying stocks at the high point of the year. By investing over a longer time period, you are going to be buying into the market at highs and lows, thereby creating a more even investing schedule.

The easiest way to do this is to tell the investment professional how much money you would like to invest and then have them draft up an investing schedule for you to follow.