Buzz
You’ve probably heard it before: Stop checking your investments too often. Let the market do its job. Stay a bit blissfully uninformed. Trust that your savings will grow.
Here’s another reminder, just in case you’re anxious at the thought of checking your portfolio.
The optimal frequency for checking your investments, according to analyst Jared Dillian, is once a month. He shares this insight on MarketWatch:
Don’t cancel your paper statements! Have them sent to your home, and when they arrive, open them. Just don’t log in to the website.
Once a month, you should weigh the trade-off between too much negative feedback and intentional ignorance. Before the internet, people managed perfectly fine with monthly statements.
Sorry, trees. We're sticking to paper this time.
“If you check it too rarely, you might miss an opportunity to adjust your asset allocation,” Dillian explains. “Most investors shouldn’t attempt to time the market, but I do think there are one or two occasions in your investing career where a major shift in your investment strategy might be justified.”
Dillian’s advice ties back to the idea that your finances should be boring. Instead of stressing daily about what’s happening (or not happening) in the stock market, you need to trust the power of compounding interest to gradually grow your investments, despite the daily fluctuations you hear (and sometimes yell about) on the news.
For those of you cringing at the thought of keeping paper statements: I understand, it's convenient to check things online. But logging into your account will make it harder to resist the temptation of interfering with your own best interests.
Unless you're slipping on your trading jacket and heading to the trading floor as you read this, ignore the urge to constantly refresh your portfolio performance and stick to reviewing your monthly statement.
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