To get ahead with anything you intend to start, you must have a kind of plan and of course, this works just the same with investments. An investment plan is a doorstep before you think of making any entry into the investment world.
For instance, when an entrepreneur starts a business, he develops a business plan. This is one of the first and most important steps. This plan is a statement of the goals of the business, why these goals are attainable, and the technique for attaining those goals.
Once the business plan is created, it then acts as a kind of guide to aid important business decisions. If by any chance the business takes a different direction, the new business plan that is created will document the reasons for the change.
This helps the business not to go completely off course without recognizing that there was a conscious and strategic change. A similar method is applied when setting up an investment plan.
Creating an investment plan isn’t just choosing a couple of stocks to put money in. It is important to consider your financial situation at the time that you are setting up your plan and your goals.
Define your timeline and the amount of risk you are willing to take on.
Steps To Creating A Unique Investment Plan
- Define Your Present Financial Situation
One of the first steps to consider when making an investment plan is your current financial situation. Know how much money you have to invest and this can be figured out by making a budget to estimate your expendable income after expenses and emergency savings monthly. This helps you make out how much you can actually afford to invest.
Determining how accessible or liquid your investments need to be is important and investing in liquid assets like stocks rather than real estate is beneficial if you might need to cash in on your investment as soon as possible.
- Outline Your Goals
Outlining your goals is the very next step to making an investment plan. What is your reason for investing? How do you intend to use the money earned? You may want to buy a house or retire with no hassles in the near future.
Also, it is important to define the timeline of your goals or the time horizon. How fast do you want to make money from your investments?
Are you keen on rapid growth or you want to see investment growth over time?
Your goals can be categorized into three:
- Safety: This is when you intend to maintain your present financial situation.
- Income: This is when you want your investments to make you enough income that you can depend on.
- Growth: This is when you intend to build wealth over time.
Based on which of these three your goals fall into you can easily choose the best investment path for you.
- Assess Your Risk Tolerance
Determining how much risk you are willing to take is the next step in creating your investment plan.
Typically, the amount of risk you can take is directly proportional to your age. Hence, the younger you are, the more risk you can take, this is because your portfolio has time to recover from any losses, in case of any.
If you are older, it is best to seek less risky investments and rather invest more money ahead of time to stimulate growth.
In reality, super risky investments have the likelihood of great returns but major losses too. Gambling on an undervalued stock or piece of land could yield returns or you could lose an investment. If your goal is to build long term wealth, it may be wise to choose a safer investment path.
- Make An Investment Decision
The next step is to make an investment decision – what to invest in, where to invest in. There are various accounts to use for your investments. Your budget, goals, and risk tolerance will help you figure out the right kind of investment for you.
You can check out securities like stocks, bonds, and mutual funds.
You can also invest in real estate, art, and other physical items. Wherever you choose to invest, ensure that you diversify your portfolio. (A diversified portfolio has a mixture of stocks, fixed income and commodities and this works because these assets react in different ways to the same economic situation).
It is not advisable to invest all your money into stocks and risk losing everything if the stock market crashes. Allocating your assets to various investment types that align with your goals and risk tolerance is more favorable as it helps to increase your growth and stability.
When you get to this step while trying to build your investment plan, it is best to get a financial advisor. An advisor can help you figure out how best to invest your money with respect to your present financial situation and goals.
- Track Your Investments
It is advisable to monitor your investments and not just leave them. Every now and then, do a check-in to see how well your investments are doing and decide whether or not rebalancing is needed.
It could be that you may not be depositing enough money into your investments monthly and are far behind in terms of your goals or you could be putting in more money than you need to and upfront as regards schedule.
You may want to move your money to a more stable investment as you inch closer to attaining your long-term goals or your investments are doing very well and you think just maybe you can take even higher risk to attain your goals quicker.
Go through the assessment steps that you followed to develop your plan every now and then and this is important to make sure everything is working according to plan. It is necessary to make changes or adjustments to ensure that you are on the right path to attaining your goals.
Why You Need To Build An Investment Plan
Essentially, laying the necessary foundation for your investments helps to grow your savings for greater financial rewards in the future rather than just maintaining it.
Investment planning assesses different investment options in order to choose the right vehicles for your assets such as stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. Working with an investment planner gives you an edge in terms of professional knowledge and experience when creating and developing your investment portfolio.
Clarity of Goals
What investment planning does for you is that it makes your goals concise and precise. You start to approach your investments with razor-focus when keep your goals close to heart. Having an idea of the results you want will make choosing the right channels and strategies to reach them way easier. Determining your goals such as earning money for a big buy or growing your retirement fund is an essential part of investment planning that allows you to look at the overall plan when developing and reevaluating your investment plan.
Increase In Returns
There are lots of investment options available and it is important to pick investments that will bring significant returns.
The right channels for your investments may switch over time depending on the present state of the economy, trends, and several other factors. Nonetheless, investment planning will enable you to carefully evaluate every factor that affects the present and probable future returns so that you get to place your money in an investment that will most likely give way for a rise in much-needed wealth.
Ease of Execution
Investment planning helps you develop a plan that is easy for you to grow your assets.
This will not only make you feel better about the level of risk that comes with the investments you have chosen; you will also effortlessly set aside money for new investment over time instead of allowing your living expenses to dwindle. The right investment planning will help you achieve your financial goals in the future without affecting the present quality of your life.
A Few Worthy Tips For Investment Newbies
- The earlier the better. As soon as you have an emergency fund in place and fixed your debts, start investing. The earlier you start the higher the risk you can afford to take and the quicker you will experience investment growth.
- As earlier stated, to successfully invest you must spread your tentacles and not be domiciled. Simply put, try not to put all your eggs in one basket. It is easier for younger investors to diversify by investing in mutual funds.
- Research! Research and always ask for the opinion of an expert. If you’re unclear of where or how to start or if you feel you don’t have time to track and manage your portfolio, you can hire a financial advisor.
Here, at Quantum Zenith Asset Management, our team of experts can assist in creating the right investment plan for your current and future needs. We would love to help you attain your financial goals.
You can find out more. We are always a click away.