Rebecca Lake
Jan. 2, 2021
It’s time to make some investing resolutions. The start of a new year is a good opportunity to complete a financial review of the year just passed and see what you’ve accomplished in terms of building your wealth, increasing your net worth, and growing your investments. Only then can you consider which financial resolutions will help you achieve your money goals going forward.
As the New Year arrives, here are four moves you may want to consider to make for a brighter financial outlook.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- Now that 2021 has started, you may want to consider making some investing resolutions for the new year.
- While many people break their new year's resolutions, fixing your finances early and adjusting your planning for the rest of the year can be done quickly and easily.
- Here we suggest four new years resolutions to get your finances in order that you can totally keep.
1. Expand Your Portfolio
Diversification is important for insulating your investments against volatility in the market. If your investments are concentrated in one particular asset class, you’re putting your whole portfolio at risk if that market sector experiences a downturn. If your investments lack variety, injecting some new blood into your holdings should be on your to-do list.
Real estate, for example, can be a good hedge against fluctuations in the market. If you’re not investing in real estate yet, this could be a great time to consider adding a rental property to your portfolio. As an alternative, investing in a real estate investment trust (REIT) or venturing into real estate crowdfunding could allow you to reap the benefits of owning real estate without actually having to purchase a property.
2. Become a Regular Rebalancer
Periodically rebalancing your portfolio helps to ensure that you’re maintaining the right asset allocation to meet your investment goals. The trouble is that all too often investors fail to take a hands-on role in managing their investments, preferring a set-it-and-forget-it approach.
On average, more than 8% of the workforce is enrolled in employer-sponsored retirement plans, but less than a quarter of employees ever make the effort to rebalance their portfolio.1 2
If you haven’t paid much attention to rebalancing in the past, the New Year is an opportunity to change things up. For example, if you normally rebalance once a year, think about increasing that to bi-annually or quarterly. While you don’t need to review your asset allocation daily (and therein lies madness—plus the risk of overreacting to minor market changes), you should be keeping a finger on the pulse of what’s happening with your investments.
3. Increase Your Tax Efficiency
Along with management fees, taxes can present another drain on your investments. This typically isn’t something you have to worry about with a qualified retirement plan, such as an employer’s plan or an individual retirement account (IRA)(RRSP). With those plans, your savings grow tax-deferred and withdrawals after age 59.5 are taxed at your regular income tax rate.
With a taxable investment account, on the other hand, you have to be mindful of triggering the capital-gains tax. This tax applies when you sell an investment for more than what it cost when you purchased it. One way to minimize this tax is to choose tax-efficient investments, such as ETFs or index funds. These kinds of funds have lower turnover compared to actively managed funds, which reduce the frequency of taxable events.
The Bottom Line
These resolutions can be useful if you’re ready to press the reset button on your investment strategy for the New Year. The hardest part about making resolutions is sticking to them, however. To make sure you stay on track, consider how they fit into your larger financial plan.
