What's your risk level?

You don’t want your investments keeping you awake at night, so it’s important to choose where on the scale you want your money to be invested.

At one end, there are low risk options for very cautious investors and at the other, higher risk investments for the more adventurous among us. The higher up the risk scale you climb, the more potential there is for returns – but also for losses, so make sure you’re comfortable with the risks associated with your investments.

Thinking about long term goals makes it easier to ride out stock market ups and downs.

Investing should be approached with a minimum time frame of five years or longer. This is why short-term fluctuations in the stock market should not trigger any changes in your investment strategy.

Play the long game, because it’s about ‘time in the market, not timing the market’. Make sure you have some cash held in savings to deal with life’s unexpected expenses, so you can keep your investments secured over the long term, especially during periods of market volatility.

Spread the risk by splitting your money between investments with different risk levels.

Spreading your money across a range of different types of assets and geographical areas means you won’t be depending too heavily on one kind of investment or region. Being diversified can help even out returns over the long-term, as different assets may perform in different ways depending on market conditions at the time. So a weak returning investment shouldn’t affect your portfolio’s overall performance too much as your stronger returning investments will ideally make up for it. Remember that, in some instances, cash can also play a role in a balanced portfolio, as well as other investments of varying asset classes.