Exploring Your Investment Options

What is your investment horizon – how long do you wish to invest your money for?

Step 3

How much investment risk are you prepared to take or is appropriate for your financial profile?

Step 4

How much ready access to your money do you need? In general you can assume that the longer your money is invested the better the return tends to be.

Step 5

Consider your long term goals and don’t simply focus on the short term.

By taking on board the message from these 5 steps you can discover the type of investor you are and find an investment that best balances all of the criteria. These can generally be found in a combination of the following options:

• Cash – money placed on deposit
• Bonds – government and corporate bonds or government and corporate loans
• Property – usually commercial property but can include residential
• Equities – company shares traded on stock markets
• Commodities – tracking the performance of the likes of oil, copper, gold and more
• Alternatives – this refers to investing in non-traditional assets or strategies
• Funds – these are collective instruments that invest in combinations of each of these and will often be referred to as Mixed/Managed Funds or Multi-Asset Funds

Help Is At Hand

At first glance the investment world can appear confusing and an uncomfortable place, complicated by charts, tables and strange language. While ultimately the decision about where and how to invest your money is yours, professional advice is particularly important when exploring the type of investor you are – ranging from conservative right through to Adventurous and a range of options in between. This advice will then follow on to helping you choose the right portfolio of investments to match your profile. It is also important that the person giving you advice is properly authorised and qualified who can guide you along your investment journey and offer one to one advice along the way.