Financially Shifting My Investment Strategy To One That Slides

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I’ve been very busy lately, too busy!

Actually, I’ve been so busy that I don’t have the time to focus on the investments and investing in general.  This is not the first time this has happened to me, and hopefully it won’t be the last.  It’s okay though and I’m going to explain why and how I setup my investment to maintain a stable state with I my financial brain slides until I’m ready to re-engage.

So since I don’t have the time to dedicate to investments like I have in previous years, I have to change my strategy from a semi-active trading strategy to a more passive, “let someone else” manage it, or a more conservative investment portfolio.

For me, the easiest way to shift my investing strategy to a sliding state is to research and pick a balanced mutual fund or maybe an index fund or ETF, of some sort.  I won’t necessarily get the highest return this way, but the time that I would normally spend on such activities no longer exists presently.  So that means I don’t have the time to be in rocket stocks (like Baidu, ticker BIDU) as I have in the past.  So I’ve taken my money out, and put them in slower moving investments like dividend stocks and mutual funds.

In the past, I would keep about 10% of my investment portfolio in aggressive “rocket” stocks, but over the past few months, I’ve cashed them in and now I’m at the point where I need to put that money back to work, but in a safe fashion.  So I’m looking at stable dividend stocks, balanced and index mutual funds, and possible some ETFs…

Now you might think that ignoring my investments is dangerous and not a good strategy, but if you shift your investing strategy to be a value oriented one (much like Warren Buffett’s approach), this shouldn’t be a problem.  In fact, value oriented investing, picks investments for the long-term, not for quick momentum gains.

Does this mean that I have given up on active investing?  No, not in the slightest!  For me choosing my own investments is a lifelong passion that I will do until I retire.

12 thoughts on “Financially Shifting My Investment Strategy To One That Slides”

  1. Is it a good time to jump in now? The market has been on a tear since the January. I moved a big chunk of my investment to dividend stocks recently too and was wondering if I should have waited for a pull back instead. Sam just sold all his equities…

    • I’ve been thinking of shifting out too. I’m up 15% since January in my 401k, and that has me worried. Usually such steep inclines means corresponding declines back to a normal level. And I don’t see any real reason for the steep incline to boot.

      Dividend stocks don’t fall as quickly (at least in my opinion) if they are value companies.

  2. Sometimes it’s a good idea to take a step back anyway, and focus less on highly active management. I say this being someone with a positive view of index funds when it comes to equity investments.

    The market is quite high right now, reaching impressive levels. This might be one reason I’ve been thinking of getting more active – actually, to rebalance asset classes.

    • Yes, good move. If I wasn’t so busy, I’d see it as a great time to tinker around in the market…

      Hopefully things will become digestible again, and I can slip back into a more active management roll again.

  3. Why not go middle ground? Research individual stocks that could have an upside but are probably safer (like starting with the dividend champion list for example)

  4. I think your approach will help out quite a bit while you’re so busy. Since you enjoy picking stocks, when things calm down, you can just slip back into an active management role. Good luck!

  5. Historically, an index fund would do better than picking stocks anyway. It is rare a mutual fund manager can consistently do a lot better than the market.

    • I agree and the bulk of my investment (401k account) are in index funds 🙂

      They are an easy way to go, and probably the path I will take for my investments.

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