Year-End Investing Moves

As the New Year approaches, consider reviewing your investments to ensure your investment strategy continues to reflect your personal and financial goals. Here are six ideas to consider.

Contribute More

If you have a company 401(k) or other qualified retirement plan, now is a good time to make sure you contribute every tax-deferred dollar you can. Not only are your contributions tax-deferred, but potential growth is, too. If you can’t contribute the maximum your plan allows, try to at least put in as much as your employer matches.

Leverage Your Losers

Consider selling some losers if your other investments performed well in 2018, and use tax-loss harvesting to deduct losses from your long-term capital gains (owned at least one year) or ordinary income (for shorter-term transactions). Deduct up to $3,000 annually by tax-loss harvesting like this, with the remainder carried forward to future tax years.

Reap Your Rewards

Conversely, consider selling investments with taxable gains when you have taxable losses to offset them.

Rebalance

When one asset class outperforms others, your intended asset allocation* will likely change. Rebalance your portfolio to your original allocation strategy to help get your investment mix back in line.

Review

When life changes, your investment strategy may, too. Review your portfolio and personal financial goals with an advisor at least annually. This way, you consider marriage, divorce, family additions and new jobs when reviewing your strategy.

Make it Simple

Put your investing efforts on cruise control. Consider age-based or strategy-based mutual funds** meant for people with similar investment outlooks. If available, use the automatic contribution, contribution escalators and rebalancing features of your 401(k) plan.

*Asset allocation won’t guarantee a profit or ensure against a loss, but may help reduce volatility in your portfolio.

**You should consider the fund’s investment objectives, charges, expenses and risks carefully before you invest. The fund’s prospectus, which can be obtained from your financial representative, contains this and other information about the fund. Read the prospectus carefully before you invest or send money. Shares, when redeemed, may be worth more or less than their original cost.