Hubby and I are very new to investing - we've struggled out of debt, got some savings set aside for emergencies, have our retirement plans organised and are now in a position to start putting something away for the longer term.

Thing is, we have two main items over different time periods that we want to invest for, and I'm not sure how to work this out.

We want to a)save a lump sum to be spent when hubby retires from the military in 4 years' time and we move back to Europe, and b) save towards the purchase of a house in approx 10 years' time.

At the moment we have a few mutual funds (I work for the mutual fund company so can buy at NAV, bg perk!) and we just opened an online brokerage account at Ameritrade as my company doesn't offer index-tracking mutual funds, and that's something I would like to put at least some of our investments into.

So, here's my question: do I plan a portfolio of funds based on the longer saving time period (of 10 years) i.e. a more aggressive mix, take out what we need at the end of the 4 years to fund our move, then keep going with the same portfolio until the 10 year period? Or, do we aim for the shorter time period goal of 4 years i.e. a more conservative mix with maybe more in bond funds, and then re-start with a newly balanced portfolio afterwards in order to meet our house-buying goal in 10 year's time.

Or, should we have 2 completely separate portfolios with the money for the 2 items being kept entirely separate?!

I'm confused and would definitely appreciate some help from someone with more experience...

Since none of us have a crystal ball, I'm not sure what the difference would be between a 4 year stock and a 10 year stock. I'm going to assume you mean risk and that a 10 year stock would be a more conservative, lower risk investment.

Since you already have relatively low-risk investments, including the military retirement, I'd go for the higher risk stocks. No matter which way you go, you'll have to monitor the stock performances at least annually, hopefully more often. WRITE DOWN the reasons why you purchased a specific stock AND the conditions under which you'd sell it. When those conditions exist - especially if you think the stock price is close to topping out - don't be tempted to keep it. Sell.

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