What are your long term savings goals? Are you saving towards a purchase of anything in particular?

I've been regularly contributing to a 401 for nearly a decade and I've been maxing it out for a few years now. I was looking at how much was in there and if I continue to work and max it out every year, what will be there when I'm 65. The number surprised me. I then looked at what I currently own in stocks and funds and used an online calculator to estimate how much would be there when I'm 65 with average returns. That number was very similar.

So I changed my strategy this last year. While I'm still saving what I can, I need to actually start spending some of my money because when I look back on my life, there's not a lot of big experiences I can point to and say "I really enjoyed my trip to..." or "That time I did...".

My suggestion to those still trying to save and are relatively young is the following:

1. Put all your money into an index fund. My recommendation is vanguard total stock index (admiral or regular, depending on what you can afford).

If you want to diversify, split between index funds. If you're a bit older and want more security (or suspect a need to get out of the market in the next 5-10 years), get some bonds or lower risk investments.

I say this as someone who used to day trade and who still owns a decent amount of stock (working on selling them off as the timing is right and redistributing to an index fund instead). I say this because the headache you cause yourself trying to beat the market just isn't worth it. You might win some years, but you won't win all years and the reality is that index funds do a better job in the long run than the vast majority of people including people who decide to go into trading as their choice of career.

I have several shorter and longer term goals. I'm happy to discuss strategies, but most of the strategies that we have just come down to budgeting; my wife and I make a certain amount of money, and every month we automatically put it in different financial streams, with whatever is left over being available for personal use.

Short Term Requirements

• 6 months salary (me + wife) in accessible savings
• home management fund for repairs / maintenance / upgrades
• yearly vacations

Medium Term Requirements

• have sufficient down payment to purchase another home (probably selling the house we have now)
• upgrade to another car, preferably electric

Long Term Requirements

• education fund for all three kids (though we'll likely have tuition covered by virtue of my wife being a professor, there are lots of other costs, and the kids may want to go to a different school than the one my wife is at)
• retirement fund (in ~15 or 20 years for me, probably longer for my wife) which consists of a modest stock portfolio, RRSPs (like a 401K for Canadians), other investments, which we mostly hire someone to manage.

There's an inheritance sitting with a kind of notary-lawyer that is being depleted by schoolfees. If enough is left when the will's opened I'll go back to where I was born and buy a small farm; live autonomously if possible, maybe with friends. In the meantime all my savings go to trainfare and guitarstrings, so in a pinch I can busk at a station - "evening travellers, here's Louie Louie in a samba arrangement..."