Check-in on Your Investments

Believe it or not, we’re halfway through the year. That means now is a good time to review your investment portfolio. If things are off, you have some time left in the year to get everything headed in the right direction. Here’s what you should know about portfolio reviews.

Portfolio Breakdown

Your investment portfolio refers to your collection of investments:

• Bonds
• Stocks
• Mutual funds
• Exchange-traded funds (ETFs)
• Precious Metals (Gold, Silver, Platinum)
• Alternative Investments (Real Estate, Commodities, Collectibles, Crytpo)

You may hold your portfolio in a variety of taxable and tax-advantaged accounts including:

• IRA
• Roth IRA
• 401(k), 403(b) or other workplace savings account
• A brokerage account or trading account

You can be a hands-on manager of your portfolio or relatively hands-off (if, for example, your money is invested via a target-date fund designed to keep itself in line with your age and risk tolerance). It all comes down to personal preference.

Consider Risk

One of the main reasons for reviewing your portfolio is to assess whether your risk tolerance is out of sync with your investment strategy. Risk tolerance simply refers to how much you can tolerate losses to benefit from long-term gains. If you are close to retirement — or if the market has moved significantly in one direction or the other — you may want to rebalance your investments into a more conservative mix of investments. If you’re further from retirement, you may take a more aggressive investment approach. 

Review Investments 

When you review your portfolio, make sure your assets are allocated, or the mix of investments, are where you want them to be. Check that your timeline for the portfolio matches the timeline of your savings goals. If things are awry, realign them immediately. If you are using a robo advisor, you shouldn’t have to worry about rebalancing, as they are set to do this automatically. But always double-check to be sure.

Do One Thing: Review your investment portfolio at least once every six months to ensure it still aligns with your goals.