I am not one to check my portfolio progress on a daily basis. Nor do I do it monthly or quarterly. It is very random – whenever I have time. Period. Having the luxury of an advisor from my team of advisors at HexagonWealth, I have surrendered to the process! Is my portfolio similar to our model that I have made for clients? Are the actions on my portfolio similar to what is being done for the rest of my clients? I do not ask for anything more because I know that is enough to make it work.
Is there something that bothers me then? Yes, I need to know once in a while where I stand with reference to my goals. If a considerable period of time has elapsed since I have seen where I stand in my map, my google marker so to say, I become restless. And this is not an annual phenomenon, for I do not need to know at such a frequent basis. But as I approach a goal, or I want to change a goalpost I need to figure this out.
Last weekend was one such time. (I must confess, it got triggered by my wife wanting me to do something constructive rather than an afternoon post-lunch siesta.) And I went through these steps:
#1: I went through the ritual of putting down the latest value of my portfolio, which is the least time consuming as I just have to open up our portal that has the latest portfolio value.
#2: Wrote down with my wife’s help our present monthly expenditure and compared it with what we had put in the plan.
#3: Quickly debated on whether they would be any new elements of expenditure in our later years with the result that we made some changes in our philanthropy budget and our travel budget. And added to our healthcare budget ☹
#4: Made adjustments to education goals as we had over provided in one case.
#5: Lowered my expected return calculations a bit.
#6: Checked whether my goals are being fully funded with a margin of safety.
I started off reluctantly, cribbing to my wife on being a slave driver and making me miss my siesta. But guess what? I thoroughly enjoyed my tea time. The sense of relief that overcame me after this exercise, actually put me in a very positive mood for the weekend! And believe me, the feel-good feeling does not go away. It is the sense of joy that one feels on doing their duty. Of feeling secure.
T. Srikanth Bhagavat
Managing Director & Principal Advisor