DIVERSIFY Your Investments
A diversified portfolio is also a generally accepted best investment practice, which means spreading your money across many kinds of investments to help manage volatility.
Diversification goes beyond the general asset classes of stocks and bonds. These can be split further into more specific sub-asset classes to take advantage of different parts and behaviors of the investment markets. Using multiple asset classes can help you maintain a more consistent return.
Not sure where to start? An age-appropriate MERS Retirement Strategy may be a good option for you. Retirement Strategies may come in a single package, but actually each fund is highly diversified with 11 asset classes to help you put your money to work more effectively toward your retirement goals. Each fund is named for a “target date”—the approximate year you expect to retire at age 65. Funds furthest from their target dates emphasize growth potential by allocating most investments to stocks. As you move closer to—and into—retirement, the funds automatically adjust (rebalance) to a more conservative mix. The funds automatically rebalance to the target allocation as well. The only thing you need to do is make sure the fund meets your risk tolerance. If it doesn’t, you can simply choose a fund with a different year and risk tolerance.

Good news! Retirement Strategy is the default fund for the MERS Defined Contribution Plan, 457 Program and Health Care Savings Program, so unless you’ve made an investment change, it is likely that your money is already invested in the fund that most closely aligns with your retirement date. You can always review and change your investments through your myMERS account.
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MERS Retirement Strategies |
Periodic Table of Investment Returns |
Learn more about the MERS Retirement Strategies. 
(Video Link - MERS Retirement Strategies) |
The Periodic Table of Investment Returns depicts annual returns for 9 asset classes, ranked from best to worst performance for each calendar year.

(Table of Investment Returns) |