Freshen Up More Than

Just Your House This Spring

The team at Raymond James Ribble Valley, based in Longridge, explain why now is the optimal time to review your financial goals and take stock of your assets

With the hours of daylight getting longer and the mornings brighter, many homeowners begin bracing themselves to tackle their annual big ‘spring’ clean and tidy up.

Spring encourages many of us to clean our homes, freshen up décor and transform the garden. It can also be the perfect time to review your financial goals, declutter your accounts, weed out any serial underperformers and rebalance your portfolio. We look at practical ways to potentially add some bloom back into your investment portfolio and take stock of your accumulated assets.

Revisit your goals
As with your wardrobe, the first thing you might do is evaluate what you own and why you own it. What role do your investments play in your portfolio and are they helping you achieve your goals?
Every investment should serve a purpose. You might invest to help your portfolio grow or to save for retirement, or perhaps to give you a bit of extra income.
Make sure you have a specific goal in mind and see if what you’re investing in meets that.

Spread your roots
Diversification isn’t just about the number of investments, but rather how each one complements the others.
You could expand your holdings across different types of investments that usually perform differently from each other like shares, bonds and cash, or spread your shareholdings between different sectors, like tech or healthcare.

Weed out consistent underperformers
Many people own shares they bought years ago on a friend’s recommendation, or they liked a product that a company once sold.
If it’s something you’ve found hard to keep track of or lost interest in doing your research and its performance is lagging behind other investments, it could be a good idea to rethink investing in it. It takes a lot of time to follow an individual company, its progress and the different risks it faces.

Prune your winners
It’s likely you chose your investments based on the amount of risk you were willing to take.
When you review your portfolio, make sure you still have the right amount in each area, and if not, rebalance.
You could consider selling a portion of your top performers and top up areas that haven’t done so well, as long as you’re still happy with your choices. It might sound counterproductive but having investments that move in different directions is why you diversify in the first place.

Bring your accounts together
It’s hard enough to keep a grip of a single set of investments, but if you have a pot full of different accounts across different providers, it can be even harder.
Check to see if you have more than one of a particular type of account, like an ISA or pension. If you do, it could make sense to bring everything together under one roof as this will make them easier to look after.

Plant something new
Spring gives us a chance to cut off our portfolio’s dead branches and plant that money into something that has a better chance of blossoming. If you’re not sure about how your portfolio is doing or want someone to help you with a spring clean, Raymond James has an experienced team of advisers on hand to help.
Advice isn’t just for helping you choose investments though. Our advisers are passionate about helping you achieve your own unique version of financial freedom.

Risk Warning: Opinions constitute our judgement as of this date and are subject to change without warning

Raymond James Investment Services
8 Berry Lane
Longridge, Preston PR3 3JA
01772 780300
ribblevalley.raymondjames.uk.com

Comments

comments

Tedd Walmsley

Be the first to know

To get exclusive news, be the first to know about our special offers and competitions, sign up to Live Magazines for FREE.

Tedd Walmsley managing director of Live Magazines shares his views on the latest topics in media.

Follow him on Twitter and connect with him on LinkedIn to join the conversation