| Despite a few bumps in the final weeks, 2024 closed out as another strong year for the market. And so far, 2025 is shaping up to be a promising one for investors as well. That's just one man's opinion, of course - but the data backs it up. It's important to know that there are three steps you can take to earn higher returns through the rest of the year no matter what the market does. No. 1: Save More The 2024 Retirement Confidence Survey revealed that millions of Americans are woefully unprepared for retirement. The single biggest reason? They haven't saved enough. A third of workers currently have less than $50,000 in savings and investments. In addition, 14% of workers have less than $1,000 in savings and investments. I've been an avid saver since I was an indigent young man in my 20s. I drove a beater car at the time. (The stereo was worth more than the vehicle.) I shared an apartment with friends. I had no health insurance. I had no employer-sponsored retirement plan. But I saved. Frankly, I was terrified of what might happen if I didn't. Yet millions of Americans today believe the government will deliver the material happiness they deserve, sparing them the trouble and discomfort of striving. That is no path to financial security. The average recipient receives $1,925 a month from Social Security. It's hard to live fully on that. To ensure a comfortable retirement, you should save as much as you reasonably can, starting as soon as you can and continuing for as long as you can. Unlike the performance of the stock and bond markets, saving is under your control. No. 2: Cut Your Investment Costs In most walks of life, you get what you pay for. This is emphatically not the case when it comes to investment managers. Every year, 3 out of 4 active fund managers fail to even match the return of their unmanaged benchmarks. Over periods of a decade or more, more than 95% of them underperform. Do you really want to pay hefty fees to someone with less than a 1-in-20 chance of delivering the goods? Investment fees and returns are inversely correlated. All else being equal, the more your advisor makes, the less you do. This is particularly true in the fixed income area. Ten-year Treasurys currently yield 4.6%, for example. If you plunk for an income fund with a 0.75% expense ratio, it may take nearly a fifth of your annual return. That makes no sense. The goal is for you to get rich, not your broker. No. 3: Rebalance Your Portfolio The U.S. stock market has made a remarkable run since it bottomed during the financial crisis 16 years ago, returning 15% annually. If you've been an equity investor during this period, you probably have more in stocks than you'd be comfortable with in a prolonged downturn. So rebalance your portfolio. Rebalancing means you sell back those asset classes that have appreciated the most and put the proceeds to work in those that have lagged. This is a contrarian exercise. And the main effect is that it forces you to sell high and buy low. This adds to your long-term returns while reducing your risk. Over the last several years, international markets - and particularly emerging markets - have delivered much lower returns than domestic equities. Small caps have underperformed large caps. And value stocks have lagged growth stocks. Yet history tells us this will not always be the case. Eventually all asset classes revert to the mean. That means the losers become big winners. So fight the urge to keep riding large cap growth stocks higher - and spread your risk. Yes, I often tell readers to hang on to their winning stocks and cut their losers short. But there's a big difference between trading individual securities and rebalancing your portfolio. When it comes to asset allocation, you flip the script and sell back the asset classes that have surged the most and add to the laggards. When the cycle turns - as it always does eventually - you'll be glad you did. Good investing, Alex P.S. If you didn't catch my event on Thursday - The 2025 Millionaire-Maker Summit - go here to watch the recording. | 
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