Investment check-in: How’s your allocation?
We’ve all been through some big changes over the past year. Regardless of what else has been going on in your personal life, the global pandemic has impacted financial markets as well as many household budgets.
As we continue to head toward recovery, now is the perfect time to perform a checkup on your finances—including your investments.
After a year like 2020, Forbes contributor Leon LaBrecque recommends making an investments check-in a priority for 2021. He suggests a simple three-step process for getting your investments back on track:
- Review: Take stock of your current investments.
- Reallocate: Decide where your money should be flowing.
- Rebalance: Get the mix back on track.
These ‘three Rs’ are “an essential part of your financial and retirement plan, but particularly important for 2021,” he says. “We can use these new buckets to help simplify the process, to make managing our financial lives less of a challenge.”
From your retirement savings to your stock portfolio, performing an investments check-in can help you fine-tune your long-term financial plans and help ensure you’re on track to meet your goals. Our Investment Services team is here to help you get a clear picture of your finances, reassess your risk tolerance and figure out how to redirect your investments toward the outcomes you desire.
Why should you review your investments?
Your initial investment strategy is based on two key factors: where you’re currently at in life, and where you want to end up. As time goes by, things change—both in your personal life and in financial markets.
By adjusting your investments as you go, you can respond to those changes by fine-tuning your portfolio’s performance to achieve the future you want today. In these turbulent times, it’s especially important to take the pulse of any ‘set it and forget it’ investment strategies to ensure they’re still performing optimally in the current market.
There are plenty of good reasons to perform periodic investment check-ins, but here are some of the most important:
Your risk tolerance has changed. Investing is all about balancing risks versus rewards. When you’re first starting out as an investor, especially if you’re young, you most likely have a higher risk tolerance since you still have decades ahead to build your wealth. As you get closer to retirement age, however, you may not feel as comfortable with higher-risk investments. Rebalancing allows you to adjust your portfolio to reflect your changing risk tolerance.
Your time horizon has shortened. Every year that goes by leaves you with less time to reach your long-term investment goals. As your window of time to invest grows smaller, your asset allocation may need to change to keep you on track to meet your targets.
Your funds aren’t performing optimally. Some assets perform better than others over time, and this information can help you make better decisions about where to direct your money in the future. Checking in on your investments gives you the opportunity to evaluate the performance of all assets in your portfolio and reallocate as needed.
A lot has changed in the past year, and your investment strategy may need a little adjusting to help compensate. Ready to check in on your investments? Our team of expert Investment Services advisors are ready to partner with you and meet all your financial plans. Learn more and connect with us today to get started.
*Securities offered through Securities America, Inc., member FINRA/SIPC. Financial Advice & Investment Advisory Services offered through PFG Advisors, a Registered Investment Advisor (RIA). PFG Advisors, OCCU Investment Services, Oregon Community Credit Union and Securities America, Inc. are separate entities. Securities America and its representatives do not provide tax or legal advice; therefore it is important to coordinate with your tax or legal advisor regarding your specific situation.
CLICK HERE FOR A COPY OF PFG ADVISORS’ RELATIONSHIP SUMMARY (FORM CRS).
CLICK HERE FOR A COPY OF SECURITIES AMERICA, INC’S RELATIONSHIP SUMMARY (FORM CRS).
Free and simple tools are available for research firms and financial professionals at INVESTOR.GOV/CRS, which also provides educational materials about broker-dealers, investment advisors, and investing.
Not NCUA Insured • No Credit Union Guarantee • May Lose Value
This site is published for residents of the United States and is for informational purposes only and does not constitute an offer to sell or a solicitation of an offer to buy any security or product that may be referenced herein. Persons mentioned on this website may only offer services and transact business and/or respond to inquiries in states or jurisdictions in which they have been properly registered or are exempt from registration. Not all products and services referenced on this site are available in every state, jurisdiction or from every person listed.
Member FINRA/SIPC. FINRA registered branch office location: 2890 Willamette Street, Eugene, OR 97405
