By learning to make better investment decisions you can improve your long-term financial health. Here are a few tips:

• Expected return determines how much you'll have later. A higher rate of return means the money you've put aside grows faster. Use a realistic rate of return in your plan to get a better sense of whether your planned savings and investments will grow enough to cover your future needs.
• Risk and return go hand in hand. The higher the expected rate of return, the greater the risk, and the more money you'll need to put into unpredictable assets like stocks. A lower expected return means you'll invest more in safer investments, such as bonds.
• Long-term price performance matters. Short-term performance is too volatile to be a reliable measure when you're planning. Financial planners use long-term market returns as a guide.
• Be aggressive before retirement. Financial planners suggest that when you're saving for retirement, you should invest to achieve a high expected rate of return. Because you won't need the money for a relatively long time, you can take more risk. Over time, and on average, your return will be higher.
• Be conservative after retirement. You should plan for a lower return during your retirement years. Because you'll be relying on that money for short-term expenses, you'll want to invest in low-risk assets to ensure that your money is available when you need it.
• Know what you can handle. Determine your asset allocation based on the expected returns you've entered. Then review how you feel about the amount of risk in that allocation. Are you comfortable with the share of your assets that you should put in stocks, for example? If not, consider changing your expected rate of return so that you can adjust the amount of risk you'll need to expose yourself to.