“I love it when a plan comes together.” – Colonel John Hannibal Smith from the A-Team
Over the past few months, we’ve discussed various topics as they relate to investing. While useful and informative in isolation, these items are most powerful when combined together in an investment plan. An investment plan should reflect your objectives, your personal risk tolerance, your investment philosophy, your time horizon, tax considerations, unique constraints, asset allocation and re-balancing frequency among a list of other potential items.
All of this information together provides you with the information you, or your advisor, need to know to begin identifying appropriate investment options whether they be individual stocks or bonds, exchange-traded funds or mutual funds.
Your investment plan is your roadmap to achieving your objectives and should be followed fairly strictly. Your plan needs to be something you can live with and follow during good and bad times. Deviating from the plan’s guidelines could prove disastrous in the attainment of your long-term goals. However, the plan should not be static and should be reviewed regularly and adjusted when circumstances change in your life such as your overall objective, your time horizon or the amount of money you’re able to contribute.
Having a well-thought out and well-designed plan that you stick to, review regularly and adjust as underlying circumstances change provides you with the highest probability of success in your investment endeavors.