Investment Portfolio Planning

Five Smart Investing Principles

• Estimate your time horizon
• Know your risk profile
• Diversify, diversify, diversify
• Consider taxes and inflation
• Get started now

As part of our educational approach, we will help you understand the importance of these principles and how to apply them in developing an appropriate set of portfolios for the various savings and investment "buckets" that you might want to have, such as:

• The cash or savings bucket
  • Funds that you do not want subject to market risk
  • Funds that you may want to access in a couple of years or less
  • Think "Emergency Fund"
    
    
• The shorter term investment bucket
  • Funds that you are willing to have some market market risk but would like to have a chance of achieving a higher return than you would expect in a cash account
  • Funds that you may need to access prior to retirement, maybe in just a few years to buy a car or in 5-10 years for a down payment on a home
  • Depending upon the time frame and other factors, this bucket may want to be invested anywhere from a very conservative to a moderate risk, but almost always at a lower risk level than your longer term investment bucket
    
    
• The longer term investment bucket
  • Funds you are willing to have as much (or little) market risk as your risk profile, time horizon and goals will justify