How to Build a Diversified Investment Strategy
Detroit, MI
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December 20, 2022 07:58 AM Eastern Standard Time
One of the most valuable pieces of personal finance advice you’ll hear is to start saving and investing as soon as possible. The idea is to leverage the power of compound interest to earn profits on your profits, growing your wealth over time.
Whether you have time on your side or not, the key to building lasting wealth is to invest in a diverse portfolio to reduce your risks. But how do you get started?
This guide explains the basics of a diversified investment strategy and how you can build one.
What is a Diversified Investment Strategy?
A diversified investment strategy is an asset allocation approach where you distribute funds across a variety of different investments, mainly to reduce risk and maximize returns. Diversification is a key component of a successful investment strategy, as it helps to spread risk across multiple categories like asset classes, sectors, geographical regions and style.
Investments in a diversified portfolio often have offsetting characteristics to smooth out performance. A diversified portfolio can help to protect against market downturns and provide a steady stream of income. Additionally, diversification can maximize returns by allowing investors to capitalize on potential gains in different types of investments.
How Does a Diversified Investment Strategy Work?
By using dissimilar investments in a portfolio, investors can reduce volatility from price swings and minimize the overall impact of adverse events. That way, if one investment underperforms, its losses can be offset by gains from other investments. The goal of a well-rounded portfolio is to help you generate returns regardless of market conditions.
For example, you may choose to invest across several asset classes that don’t always move in the same direction, such as stocks, bonds or alternatives. Another example is investing in private market assets that aren’t typically correlated with public market investments.
Methods to Diversify Your Investments
Successful investing requires discipline, knowledge and consistency. When constructing a diversified portfolio, selecting investments appropriate for your risk tolerance and objectives as well as those with the potential to provide long-term returns, is essential.
Here are some methods to diversify your investments:
- Asset class: Diversifying your investments typically involves investing in different asset classes, such as stocks, bonds, real estate, commodities, alternatives and cash.
Tax treatment: Tax-deferred accounts like individual retirement accounts or 529 college savings accounts offer tax advantages that can delay taxes or allow earnings to grow tax-free. A combination of tax-deferred and taxable accounts can provide benefits as you move through stages of your life and different tax brackets.
Geography: Consider the geographical regions where you invest. Is your portfolio concentrated in the country where you reside, or is it spread across different nations and economies? International markets can offer growth opportunities that may not be available in mature developed markets.
Investment style: You can choose between investing approaches ranging from conservative income-generating styles to a growth-oriented strategy.
Public versus private: Private markets often don’t experience the same level of day-to-day volatility that publicly traded markets do. Investing in a combination of both can help to mitigate risk.
Risk tolerance: Make sure to invest according to your risk tolerance and time horizon. Investing too conservatively could mean missing out on potential returns, while investing too aggressively could mean taking on more risk than you can stomach.
Dollar-cost averaging: Choosing multiple entry points for your portfolio is also a form of diversification. Dollar-cost averaging is an investing strategy where you invest a fixed amount of money at regular intervals over some time, regardless of market conditions. This can help you spread the risk of timing your investment and increase your overall return.
Investment product: You can invest in different types of financial instruments that pool investor money, like mutual funds or exchange-traded funds (ETFs), or choose to buy single stocks or bonds. In private markets, you can also purchase private offerings or try to source your own deals.
Build a Diversified Investment Strategy in 5 Steps
Here are the steps to building a well-diversified investment strategy:
1. Establish your investment goals: Determine your investment targets, your risk tolerance and your preferred timeline for reaching your goals. Your investment mix needs to be aligned with your objectives.
2. Determine your asset allocation: Decide how you plan to allocate your funds between asset classes. Taking a top-down approach allows you to focus on the categories such as asset classes that you’d like in your portfolio and the amounts in each.
3. Select your investments: Choose the specific investments that will make up your portfolio. Within each chosen category you may express your investment views through different financial instruments, as long as they suit your needs.
4. Monitor and rebalance your portfolio: Monitor your portfolio regularly to ensure that it is meeting your goals and making progress. You will need to rebalance your portfolio periodically to maintain your desired asset allocation, especially when valuations change. If an asset has risen in value and makes up a larger portion of your portfolio than your target allocation, then you will reduce that position to maintain your target allocation.
5. Adjust as needed: Make changes to your portfolio as needed to keep it aligned with your goals and risk tolerance. If your goals change along the way, you can also adjust your investment portfolio.
Diversify Your Way to Wealth
Investing comes with risk, and there are no guarantees. But building a well-diversified investment strategy can help you grow your wealth steadily and secure your financial future. Diversification is vital to reducing risks and creating opportunities for more stable investment returns.
If you're looking for a more diverse investment approach, consider investing in private markets where there are opportunities for growth that aren't always available in public markets. Allocating to private markets can unlock attractive returns.
This post contains sponsored advertising content. This content is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be investing advice.
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