There are enough Halloween tricks to go around this time of year without involving your investment plan. Here are tips that can help you to sleep at night.
You want to monitor your investments, but don’t overdo it; you can track your portfolio daily, you can get different opinions from different sources regarding the markets and certain asset classes daily.
Articles, blogs, podcasts, TV and radio all offer an opinion, usually differing; the author cannot possibly talk to your specific situation.
Your portfolio will fluctuate daily, don’t make a decision based on daily market movements.
Negative market days also tend to be emotionally challenging and can cause you to make a decision based on emotion, not sound advice. Don’t try to time the markets – it is impossible to predict the top of a stock price until it declines.
Don’t be afraid to invest in the markets if you think they are at all-time highs – we have been hearing that for a number of months, and, if you have been sitting on the sidelines waiting for a correction, you have missed some good gains.
Don’t be afraid of selling a ‘loser’ – you have no way of knowing if it will ever bounce back, you may be able to use the capital loss on your current or a future tax return and you can possibly make up some of the loss with a different investment. Do not add to the fear you may have around your portfolio and investing.