15 Under-the-Radar Ways to Make More From Your Investments

Why settle for OK investing results when you may be able to do much better? Even a small improvement can make a big difference in the long run. For example, if you sock away $10,000 per year for 20 years and earn a 7% average annual return, you'll end up with close to $440,000. But if you earn an average return of 9% annually, you'll end up with close to $560,000 -- a much more valuable sum for your retirement.

Here are 15 ways to improve your investing results, some or many of which you may not have thought of. See which ones you might want to act on.

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We hear it over and over from investors, “I wish I had bought Amazon or Netflix when they were first recommended by the Motley Fool. I’d be sitting on a gold mine!” And it’s true. And while Amazon and Netflix have had a good run, we think these 5 other stocks are screaming buys. And you can buy them now for less than $49 a share! Simply click here to learn how to get your copy of “5 Growth Stocks Under $49” for FREE for a limited time only.

Compounding is one of the most powerful ways to build wealth -- simply giving your dollars a long time in which to grow. It may be too late for you to start investing at age 25, but the sooner you start -- or the sooner you start saving aggressively and investing effectively -- the better. Consider, for example, that if you invest $10,000 per year for 15 years and earn an 8% average annual return, you'll end up with around $293,000. But if that money can keep growing, it will total around $494,000 after 20 years and $790,000 after 25 years. Time is powerful -- even if you're just a decade from retirement.

ALSO READ: Exactly How I'd Invest $5,000 If I Had to Start From Scratch Today

If you're carrying a lot of high-interest debt, such as that from credit cards, you might not realize how it's holding back your investment performance. It is, though, because it's consuming a lot of money that could otherwise be deployed into stocks to grow for you over many years or even decades. If you're being charged, say, 20% interest (and plenty of cards charge people 25% or more) on, say, $25,000 of debt, that's around $5,000 you're forking over annually -- in interest alone. That $5,000, if invested, could grow to more than $23,000 over 20 years, at an annual average growth rate of 8%. So pay off your debt.

Stock screeners are a great tool for uncovering promising stocks. If you favor companies with revenue and/or earnings growing at least 10% annually that also pay dividends yielding at least 3%, a stock screener will show you which businesses fit those criteria. Screeners aren't perfect, though -- they will omit any wonderful company that's just a hair out of range, and they may include some companies that rate very poorly on criteria you're not screening for. Still, give screening a try now and then.

It's smart to include dividend payers in your portfolio because they can help it grow. As long as the dividend-paying companies are healthy and growing, they will likely keep paying their shareholders no matter what the economy is doing, and they'll often increase their payout every year or two as well. Imagine a $400,000 portfolio with an overall average yield of, say, 3%. That will kick out $12,000 annually to you -- in cash that can be reinvested in more stock or simply spent. That can be vital income in retirement.

ALSO READ: 3 Ultra-High-Yield Dividend Stocks With 42% to 50% Upside, According to Wall Street

First, you'll want to balance your portfolio -- spreading your money across various kinds of assets (stocks, bonds, real estate, etc.) in the proportion you want. If you're quite young, staying 100% in stocks for the long run is reasonable. If you're nearing or in retirement, you might want to add some bonds to your mix. Rebalance that portfolio over time, though, to keep the proportions you want. Otherwise, for example, after a few good stock market years, the proportion of your portfolio in stocks may have swollen far above your ideal.

5 Winning Stocks Under $49
We hear it over and over from investors, “I wish I had bought Amazon or Netflix when they were first recommended by the Motley Fool. I’d be sitting on a gold mine!” And it’s true. And while Amazon and Netflix have had a good run, we think these 5 other stocks are screaming buys. And you can buy them now for less than $49 a share! Simply click here to learn how to get your copy of “5 Growth Stocks Under $49” for FREE for a limited time only.

Another kind of rebalancing can be effective -- trimming some of your holdings when they grow to dominate your portfolio. Here's an extreme example: You may have invested 3% or 5% of your portfolio in shares of Netflix 10 or 15 years ago, and now, due to its phenomenal performance over the years, it may make up 80% of your portfolio. That's not ideal. Even with holdings that now represent 10%, 20%, or more of your portfolio, you might consider trimming those positions, because if any of those holdings crater, your portfolio will take a big hit.

Your holdings may be more likely to surprise you in a bad way if you're not keeping up with them. Aim to check up on your holdings at least once a quarter or so -- perhaps less if they're a big, blue chip company (like Coca-Cola) that's not likely to undergo much change in short order. You might give each business a review every time it issues a quarterly or annual report, perusing the report and also searching online for any news about the business. (Checking Motley Fool articles can also be fruitful.)

ALSO READ: 2 Unstoppable Stocks That Could Produce 10X Returns

Being smart about taxes can also boost your investment performance -- by letting you keep more of your dollars in your pocket or portfolio. For example, understand that the tax rate you pay on capital gains when you sell a stock for a profit depends on how long you've held the stock. If it's a year or less, that's a short-term gain, taxed at your ordinary income tax rate, which might top 30%. If it's more than a year and a day, it's a long-term capital gain, taxed at 15% for most of us and 20% for higher earners. There are other money-saving things to know about taxes, so read up and learn.

Speaking of taxes, another way to reduce your tax bill is to do some or much of your saving and investing for retirement in tax-advantaged accounts such as IRAs and 401(k)s. Both IRAs and 401(k)s come in traditional and Roth versions. The traditional ones accept your pre-tax contributions, reducing your taxable income in the year of your contribution. That's an up-front tax break. When you ultimately withdraw the money in retirement, it's taxed as ordinary income. Roth accounts, on the other hand, offer no up-front tax break, not reducing your taxable income. But when you withdraw money down the road, it can be completely tax free if you've followed the rules.

A common issue for many investors is having to decide whether and when to invest in a company. This can be especially hard if you've just read about some exciting growth stocks and you want to invest in them, but you're just not sure if they're priced attractively right now. Yes, you might jump into a bunch of them, but you might end up burned that way. You might instead just add them to a watch list, waiting and hoping for a pullback in their price. But that may never happen to a significant degree. One more choice you might make is to buy into them gradually, over time. For example, if you want to spend $6,000 on one stock, you might spend $2,000 on its shares now, $2,000 on more shares in a few months, and $2,000 later on.

5 Winning Stocks Under $49
We hear it over and over from investors, “I wish I had bought Amazon or Netflix when they were first recommended by the Motley Fool. I’d be sitting on a gold mine!” And it’s true. And while Amazon and Netflix have had a good run, we think these 5 other stocks are screaming buys. And you can buy them now for less than $49 a share! Simply click here to learn how to get your copy of “5 Growth Stocks Under $49” for FREE for a limited time only.

Exchange-traded funds (ETFs) can also help when you're unsure. For example, if you'd love to add a bunch of international stocks -- or real estate companies or cloud computing businesses -- to your portfolio, but you're not sure which ones to buy, you might buy into an ETF that focuses on such companies. That way you'll be instantly invested in a bunch of them, very possibly including some that will perform terrifically.

ALSO READ: Investing in This ETF Right Now Could Make You a Millionaire Retiree

Dollar-cost averaging is a great way to invest over a long period. It involves investing a certain set amount on a regular basis. So, for example, if you're investing in the simplest (and yet still very effective) way, via broad-market index funds, you might buy into them with, say, $1,000 every month. That way, when the index is down, you'll get more shares for your money, and when it's up, you'll get fewer. The process can keep you from spending a lot on shares at a suboptimal time.

It can be very effective when investing to demand a margin of safety before committing any dollars to a security. That's a key tenet of the value investing approach -- espoused by the likes of Warren Buffett and many other very successful investors. It means you aim to buy into stocks at prices below their intrinsic value, so that even if they fall a bit, you won't lose much, or any, money.

Investors who follow the growth investing approach are far less concerned about margins of safety. Instead, they're chasing fast-growing businesses. This approach can also pay off, but understand that many growth stocks can seem very overvalued, while other ones can be very overvalued. One way to be a growth investor is to follow The Motley Fool's investing philosophy, buying 25 or more stocks and aiming to hold them for at least five years. That will give even overvalued stocks a decent chance to grow into -- and beyond -- their intrinsic values.

ALSO READ: 3 Top Stocks That'll Make You Richer in November (and Beyond)

Finally, for best results when investing, commit to keep reading and learning about it. You can read about great investors and about great businesses, too. Read about different investing styles and read broadly, too, about psychology, history, science, and more. Reading business news stories and business magazines such as Fortune and Businessweek can help you learn how various businesses are growing and shrinking, and failing and succeeding. They can introduce you to exciting companies, too.

5 Winning Stocks Under $49
We hear it over and over from investors, “I wish I had bought Amazon or Netflix when they were first recommended by the Motley Fool. I’d be sitting on a gold mine!” And it’s true. And while Amazon and Netflix have had a good run, we think these 5 other stocks are screaming buys. And you can buy them now for less than $49 a share! Simply click here to learn how to get your copy of “5 Growth Stocks Under $49” for FREE for a limited time only.

None of the strategies mentioned previously will work well unless you undertake them in earnest. Develop a plan for how you'll invest and how you'll reach your financial goals -- and then stick to your plan. Don't let yourself get distracted or discouraged. Understand that not every stock will work out as you hoped. Understand that the really big gains in your portfolio will happen far down the road -- so stay on the road.

Selena Maranjian owns shares of Netflix. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Netflix. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.