How to Create an Investment Portfolio

First Published: ADawnJournal.com March 14, 2010

What Is An Investment Portfolio?

An investment portfolio is nothing but your collection of investments. You can hold a wide range of investments such as stocks, bonds, money market instruments, and so on in your portfolio. The objective of building a portfolio is to minimize risks and maximize return by diversify it among variety of investments. Diversification can be made within same asset class or across different asset classes. Research has shown that a diversified portfolio spreading across different classes always is the key to build a successful portfolio.

What I Need To Consider Before Building A Portfolio?

There are various factors you should consider before start building a portfolio. These factors are:

– Your time horizon
– Your risk Tolerance
– Your investment objects etc
I discussed about these in another article. Please follow this link to read it – What Is Asset Allocation?

Are There Any General Rules of Thumb Building An Investment Portfolio?

There are too many, actually. I would have to say, the most common rule is the 100 – age rule. This is simply getting the percentage of stocks and bonds you should hold by subtracting your age from 100. For example, if you are 30, you should hold (100 – 30) 70 per cent stocks and 30 per cent bonds. As you grow older, you should be reducing your stock portion according to this rule. When you are 60, you should be holding 40 per cent stocks and 60 per cent bonds.

Another simple portfolio building approach is the Neutral Allocation – which is holding 60 per cent stocks and 40 per cent bonds. Two other portfolios worth mentioning are Lazy man or couch potato portfolios by Scott Burns and The Permanent Portfolio by Harry Browne.

To find many other portfolio ideas, do a search by entering these keyword phrases: “investment portfolio mix,” “portfolio asset allocations tools,” “model investment portfolio,”etc.

Do You Have Your Own Investment Model Portfolio?

Yes, to make investing simple and worry-free, I have been invented a model portfolio called “A Dawn Portfolio” or simply ADP. You can read more about ADP here – (I am still working on this project and will add a link once done)

To find many other online asset allocation calculators, do a search by entering these keyword phrases: “asset allocation calculators,” “portfolio asset allocations tools,” etc

Last Word

Of course, you need to decide if the recommended allocations match with your personal risk tolerance and market views. Investments must be considered in context

If you are at all interested in asset allocation strategies, I strongly recommend that you read about the science. Don’t just follow conventional thinking and rules of thumb.

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