With the end of the year just around the corner, you’re probably spending most of your time with moments of merrymaking, both at work and in your personal life.
While you certainly deserve to enjoy and spend time with loved ones this holiday season, don’t forget to also plan for the year ahead. To help make this process easier, follow these 3 tips to hopefully improve your finances for the next 365 days.
1. Review
Have a look at your investments, whether made this year or earlier. Are they on track towards reaching your money goal? Are any outperformers or laggards? The answers will help you understand your current standing, investment-wise.
Aside from these, you should also examine the other major areas of your financial life, namely your savings and monthly budget. For the former, have you been able to set aside as much as you planned?
When you look at the latter, ask if you’ve been able to follow the budget that you set, or if you find yourself consistently going over (or under) the amount.
2. Redo
You should also look at your goals to see not only your progress but also so you can recalibrate according to your current situation.
For example, you might find that you can afford to invest more, and so you could set your money goal higher for the same time horizon. Or, the reverse could be true, and so it may be better for you to reduce your target if you can’t continue investing the same amount regularly.
This would also be your opportunity to set a new money goal, in case you’ve found a reason to do so.
A lot of times, mismatching your investment vehicles versus your goals in life can be very detrimental in the long term so it’s best that you take time to check if your portfolio would benefit from an overhaul.
Of course, if there isn’t any significant change in your situation, you can choose to carry your current goals over to the upcoming year.
3. Renew
Once you have all this information, you’ll be able to figure out how to rework your portfolio for 2024.
See if there’s anything missing in your portfolio in terms of overall performance or diversification and come up with a plan on how to add the necessary products.
You can consider buying more of your winners and trimming down on the losers. Perhaps reinvesting cash dividends on the same name, or diversifying further by trying out other options.
You can even consider putting together a new portfolio for a different goal if your budget permits it. That way, you’ll be able to have the right investments for the job. Just remember to still follow your risk profile when choosing.
