Thursday, 2 August 2012

The Importance of your Investment Strategy

By Stephen Hauptman


People say that life is like a game. Or in some cases, a box of chocolates, but for our purposes think of it as being a kind of game. As with any game, there are winners and losers, and the best players, the ones who always come out on top, are the ones with a strategy. If you don't know what you're doing, you'll never get anywhere, and just as it is with the game of life, so it is with investing. If you want to get the most out of your investments, you need a plan - an investment strategy!

An investment strategy is basically a plan for investing your money in various types of investments that will help you meet your financial goals in a specific amount of time. Each type of investment contains individual investments that you must choose from. A clothing store sells clothes - but those clothes consist of shirts, pants, dresses, skirts, undergarments, etc. The stock market is a type of investment, but it contains different types of stocks, which all contain different companies that you can invest in.

You need to research ahead of time, and find out all the options available to you, and it can quickly become overwhelming if you don't have a clear goal in mind - and a clear strategy to get there. So you need to know what you want, and work out in advance your own personal investment style, risk tolerance, and plan for achieving your goals - whatever they may be. There are an enormous amount of potential investments available, and to make the wisest choice you need to fully consider all your options. So do your research, and think ahead. Decide how much risk is acceptable, how soon you need a return on your investment (or rather, how long you can wait), and from that formulate a plan of action; one or several investment tools which you believe are best suited to help you achieve your goals.

If you are new to investments, work closely with a financial planner before making any investments. They will help you develop an investment strategy that will not only fall within the bounds of your risk tolerance and your investment style, but will also help you achieve your financial goals.

As a last note, don't invest anything you can't afford to lose. Nothing is certain, and the stock market (the most common investment tool), is particularly vulnerable. If you plan well and think ahead, you will almost always come out on top, but there is always some level of risk. This is massively increased if you don't have a clear plan to follow, in which case trying to invest is little better then gambling. No, the more thought you put into it now, the better your chances of coming out on top in the end, so make sure you follow a strategy!




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment