Your financial goals will keep changing as you go through life. You will need to plan for retirement, fund your kids through college, buy a new house or even upgrade to a bigger home. Whatever your personal goals, the fact remains that you need to save and invest your money into a customised mix of various investments to meet these goals.

SMART ways to invest!

S for Specific

• Why are you investing? What do you plan to do with the profit?
• Do you want capital gain or income (dividend, rental for cash flows)?

M for Measurable

• Is your investment over/underperforming? How volatile is it?
• How much of fees are you paying (commission, management fees etc) & are they eating into your return over the long run?
• Are there any comparable opportunities with similar / higher return but lower risk & cost?

A for Achievable

• Can the investment statistically give me the returns I want, within my expected time horizon?

R for Realistic

• Is the investment guaranteeing a very high return within a short period of time?
• Are you taking too much risk or putting all your money into a single investment such that you cannot sleep if that investment turned sour?

T for Timely

• When do you need to exit the investment?
• Are you getting the latest update of the investment to monitor its performance?
• Are you able to DIY your investment while busy juggling with family, health, career / business?