The reluctant investor’s guide to smart, low-effort investing

The investment tools you use will depend on what you’re trying to achieve and when.

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For short-term goals — maybe you want to buy a car in the next two years or a house in the next five — stick with a low-risk option like a savings account or certificate of deposit (CD), Dosen said. You can buy CDs from your bank or credit union, and short-term options mature in less than a year.

For long-term goals, there’s space for more risk-taking. Kuntz recommended a target-date fund, a set-it-and-forget it option for a big goal like retirement or college. These accounts, which you pay an investment manager to oversee, hinge on a future date and adjust risk level downward as that date nears. Early on, when there’s more time to recover from a loss, that often means investing more heavily in stocks; later, the asset mix shifts toward lower-risk investments, such as bonds.

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If you have time to let your money percolate but would prefer a lower-risk option, federal government savings bonds pay an inflation-adjusted interest rate and are exempt from state and local taxes.

“I like layering different savings strategies, depending upon what you’re trying to do,” Dosen said. “Not only do you have different access to accounts; you’ve got different rates of return.”

If you want to try your hand at tracking the markets and picking your own investments, think of it as a hobby, not a retirement plan. Remember: There’s a reason people do this for a living.