#5 Monitor and exit

• How and when to monitor your investments
   
• How to exit your investments

This is a very personal decision.

• If you work with a robo-advisor, then it will rebalance your portfolio automatically.
   
• If you manage all your investments yourself, you should re-balance your portfolio at least once a year, or when some of your investments have significantly changed in value.

Some of the reasons might be:

• Maybe your financial situation has changed or you have gained experience and therefore want to adapt
   
• The economic situation changes and with this your appetite for risk
   
• You want to exit your investments in the near future
   
• You want to implement new themes, industries or align your portfolio with your value

What ever the reason, please bear in mind that changing your portfolio has cost and potentially tax implications. You therefore should do it for a good reason, such as the risk you are willing to take has changed. And not every month😉.

There are different reasons why you might think of exiting your investments:

• You need the money, for example when you are about to retire
   
• You have achieved your financial goal
   
• You have set yourself a fixed timeframe (e.g. 10 years) and the time is up
   
• You find yourself in a difficult situation. If this happens, your safety fund should be your first resource, but sometimes life is unpredictable....
   
• The investment is not performing well or costing you too much

If it is an emergency, then you might have no other choice than to sell.

If you exit because it was not performing well or costing you too much, then change quickly. The costs associated with the change usually are compensated with the savings on fees or better performance over time.

For all other reasons:

1. Gradually reduce the risk out of your portfolio to make what you'll get more reliable. This means you have to change the allocation.
    
2. When the time comes, sell and reap out the benefits.