Rarely over my 36 years of advising clients do I find a "guide to investing" that is actually worth a read. Minds Over Markets is an investor-friendly, graphic-centric piece from Virtus Investments that fits that bill in addressing both market realities and investor emotions. I'd suggest it might be worth a few minutes of your time to take a look and then consider the following:
- Have you adequately evaluated and clearly defined your expectations when it comes to risk and returns?
- While most investors consider their objectives to be based "long-term", how prepared are you financially and emotionally to handle the impacts of frequently occurring "short-term" setbacks?
- Diversification is our mantra at Webster Investment Advisors. By definition, this means at any point in time there will be underperformers and outperformers in the portfolio. Given this investment mix, are you on a path to meet your goals, and is that a path with which you are comfortable?
This guide strives to help you achieve better outcomes. Nowadays this pursuit has become more difficult given the immediacy of information flows, the intensity of market moves and the overwhelming number of investment choices. Given these challenges, it is our job to provide sound education, to help evaluate individual needs, and then to position investments to meet goals. I think you will find this Virtus Investment's guide to paint a helpful picture of the complexities of this process.