New investment options let investors tap advantages formerly reserved for the wealthiest

BY JERRY MICCOLIS

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

COMMENTARY

To meet your retirement goals, one rule of thumb is that your financial advisor should construct a portfolio that's better diversified than one you could have created yourself. However, many advisors don't – in large part because their investment knowledge is largely limited to stocks and bonds.

In today's volatile markets, you need to add alternative assets that both protect your downside and give you upside opportunity.

Investing in alternative assets such as commodities, real estate and absolute-return vehicles is one of the secrets of how wealthy people, with the benefit of sophisticated financial advisors, protect and grow their money. But today, anyone with a reasonable nest egg can do it using low-cost tools such as ETFs.