It is important that you consider your current financial situation, your existing investments and be clear about your personal goals.

Your existing investments, current debt level, and obligations to your dependants are factors that will help you determine the most appropriate investment strategy for you.

To help you, we have developed a simple 7-step process. After following these processes, you should have a much clearer idea of your investment goals, and confidence that you have prepared a personal investment plan that is the right one for you.

Three elements of control on investment risk are diversification, consistent investing, and time.

i)  Diversification

Never put all your eggs into one basket. Spread your investment funds amongst different types of assets, which might include stocks, bonds, real estate, cash or cash equivalents, international investments, and investing in different securities within each type of asset.

For example, if you invest your entire retirement fund into a single stock, the particular stock price drop 50%, then you will lose half of your retirement fund. But if you diversify your investment into different categories such as stocks, bonds, real estate and fixed deposit, the plunge in stock market may be just cause insignificant loss to your portfolio.

ii) Invest consistently

One of the popular methods of investment is known as dollar-cost averaging. Each month, you invest a specific amount of money, regardless whether the market is up or down. Over the time, when the market grows, you will make a pretty return.

iii) Time horizon

Research shows that time reduces the risk of investing. The price of investment, such as stocks, may be volatile within a short period. However in the long run, most investments are able gain back any losses in value.

7 steps of investment planning
1. Identifying your financial and life goals	Everybody have their financial or life goals. You need to identify both your short- and long-term objectives, and rank it based on your priority. For more information on goal setting, please refer to our financial advisor .
2. Assessing your comfort with risk	Assess your overall financial situation and goals, time horizon, expected rate of return and tolerance for risk.
3. Identify and evaluate the investment vehicles	There are many investment vehicles in the market, such as unit trust, bond, stocks, insurance….etc. Do your research and evaluation on all these products.
4. Develop your own portfolio by selecting the proper investment vehicles	Once your goals and tolerance for risk have been identified, and you are familiar with the entire investment instruments, then you can create an investment portfolio to meet those goals. Our financial advisors can help you select the investment vehicles that are suitable for your situation in order to maximize potential returns and spread your risk among these investments.  If you already have an existing portfolio, you should review the portfolio regularly to ensure that your investment holdings and asset allocation strategies are on track to meet your overall financial objectives.
5. Analyzing your asset allocation strategy	After the portfolio has been developed, you should decide how much you need to allocate to each investment vehicle. Factors to be considered are as below: 1) Liquidity – some investments have less liquidity. e.g.: real estate 2) Risk – some investment have higher risk. e.g.: stocks 3) time horizon – i.e.: if you plan to buy a car 2 month later, you should not allocate that portion of money to invest in real estate.
6. Managing and monitoring the portfolio	As market conditions change, you should review your portfolio periodically to ensure your investment strategies continue to meet your goals.
7. Rebalancing or redesigning the portfolio, if needed	After the periodic review, you should rebalance or redesign your portfolio if it not longer suits your financial goals or if your appetite for risk changes.

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