3 in 10 Americans Are Worried About Their Investments. Here’s How to Know if Your Portfolio Is Solid

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Is your portfolio conducive to meeting your long-term goals? Find out how to tell. 

The whole purpose of investing your money is to grow it into a larger sum over time. That could, in turn, make it possible to meet different goals, such as being able to retire comfortably or retire at an early age.

A recent CFP board survey, however, found that 30% of Americans are very concerned about their investments. And if you fall into that category, you may want to take a closer look at your portfolio.

Are you investing aggressively enough?

Some people opt to play it safe in their brokerage accounts or IRAs because they’re worried about losing money. But if you stick to conservative investments like bonds, you might end up with a shortfall on your hands.

Let’s say you’ve played it safe with bonds. That might mean you’re able to generate around an average annual 5% return in your portfolio. The stock market, on the other hand, has delivered an average annual 10% return over the past 50 years, as measured by the S&P 500.

So, let’s say you’re able to put $200 a month into a brokerage account or IRA over a 30-year period. At an average annual return of 5%, you’re looking at an ending balance of about $160,000. Make that a 10% average yearly return, and you’re looking at $395,000.

As such, if you’re mostly investing in safer assets, consider making some changes. You can shift toward more conservative assets as retirement (or whatever big goal you’re saving for) nears. But you want to make sure your portfolio is delivering higher returns so it grows at a fast enough pace.

Are you diversified enough?

It takes a diversified portfolio to not only grow, but get protection during periods of stock market volatility. So if your portfolio consists of just a few stocks, or several stocks within the same market sector, you could be setting yourself up to fail.

The solution? Branch out. Aim to own at least 25 to 30 stocks across a range of market sectors. Or, load up on broad market exchange traded funds, or ETFs.

If you buy shares of an S&P 500 ETF, what you’ll effectively be doing is investing in that entire index. To put it another way, you’ll be investing in 500 different companies without having to go out and buy shares of each one individually.

Another thing you should know is that many brokerage accounts today allow investors to buy stocks as well as ETFs on a fractional basis. This means you’re not limited to whole shares. Instead, you can buy one-tenth of a share of a given company if that’s the route you want to take. If you take advantage of fractional shares, you may find that diversification becomes even easier.

It’s natural to be nervous about your portfolio, especially if you’re a newer investor. But if you’re generating high returns in your portfolio and you’ve assembled a diverse mix of assets, then you can take some comfort in the fact that you’re most likely on the right track.

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