Keep calm about your plan…

In today’s edition of the Press & Journal, Carbon’s Barry O’Neill advocates the need for good planning and a calm head when considering your investment plans.

In a simple four step plan, Barry outlines a sensible and calculated approach that will de-stress the financial part of your life, leaving you free to concentrate on more important things.

Step one

Establish clear objectives and have a plan to achieve them. This will help you make informed decisions about what, if anything, to do when confronted with market turmoil.

Step two

Take only as much risk as you need to achieve your objectives.

Step three

Diversify the underlying investments in your pensions and investments as widely as possible to limit the risk of being overly exposed to any single investment.

Step four

Manage your expectations and properly understand the expected range of returns from your portfolio. As Barry points out, knowing what to expect removes any surprises that may lead to stress and knee-jerk reactions.

It is a given that if you invest in shares, one of the expected returns in any year will be a negative number. For example, if portfolio of investments has a long-run average annual return of 8% and volatility risk measure of 10%, statistics suggest there is a 95% probability the portfolio will return between minus 12% to plus 28% in any given year. This means that any annual return between the upper and lower number is an expected return and by definition, if it is expected, we should not be surprised by it.

Following Barry‘s four step plan will help you focus on what you are trying to achieve, take the minimum risk, be appropriately diversified and help you stay calm because you properly understand your investments.

Take a minute to have a look at the whole of Barry’s article here or by clicking the image below.

If you would like to discuss your financial planning options, please contact us with any questions you might have. You can do this by calling our head office on 0131 220 0000, or by emailing us at enquiries@carbonfinancial.co.uk. or you can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.

You can view Barry O’Neill’s profile here.