ARTICLE TAKEAWAYS
Consider talking to your financial professional before establishing automatic transactions. Your financial professional can offer advice and help you make decisions that support your long-term financial plan.
You can automatically invest a specified dollar amount on a recurring basis into one or more of the funds in your account.
Benefits:
Example: You decide to set up two $200 automatic investments into AMCAP Fund® and EuroPacific Growth Fund®, occurring on the first day of every month. In this case, on the first day of each month (January, February, March, etc.), $400 would be deducted from your bank account and would be used to buy $200 worth of shares each in AMCAP Fund and EuroPacific Growth Fund.
You can automatically withdraw a specified dollar amount on a recurring basis from one or more of the funds in your account.
Benefits:
Example: You decide to set up a $200 automatic withdrawal from AMCAP Fund occurring on the 15th day of every other month. In this case, on the 15th of January, March, May, July, September and November, $200 from AMCAP Fund would be withdrawn from your account (as long as there are sufficient funds) and be deposited into your bank account.
You can automatically move a specified amount of money from one fund in your account to another fund.
Benefits:
Example: You decide to move $300 from American Funds U.S. Government Money Market Fund to The New Economy Fund® on the 25th day of each quarter of the year (e.g., January 25, April 25, July 25 and October 25). In this case, $300 worth of shares would be sold from American Funds U.S. Government Money Market Fund and used to buy $300 worth of shares in The New Economy Fund the 25th day of the first month of each quarter.
You can automatically adjust your account’s asset allocation on a regular basis. Your account’s asset allocation may change over time as investments grow at different rates through market ups and downs. An automatic rebalance can help maintain your portfolio’s desired asset allocation on a quarterly, semiannual or annual basis. If the percentage of assets you want allocated to a fund has changed by more than 5% at the end of the selected time frame, an automatic rebalance will readjust the portfolio to your specified allocation.
Benefits:
Example: At the end of the quarter, the percentage of your account allocated to Washington Mutual Investors Fund grew from 25% to 33% of the overall account’s asset mix. A quarterly automatic rebalance will exchange shares between the funds in your account until the allocation of assets in Washington Mutual Investors Fund returns to 25%. If the percentage allocated to Washington Mutual Investors Fund grew from 25% to 28% of the overall account’s asset mix, the assets in your account will not be exchanged because the change is less than 5%.