Your game plan
'Plan your life, live your plan.' Yes, it's a cliché. But when it comes to investing your money, it makes a lot of sense to have a plan.
Putting a plan together involves developing strategies and choosing the right investments. The work you've already done on goals, timeframes and risk will help to shape your investment plan.
Steps to prepare
Planning for a short-term goal
Planning for a medium-term goal
Planning for a long-term goal
Planning for income in retirement
Steps to prepare
Be clear about your current finances
The starting point is getting an accurate picture of your current financial situation. Work out what you own, what you owe and your income and expenditure. For more information see starting with an adviser, as you are following the same process that an adviser would.
Confirm your goals
Goals will become the backbone of your investment plan. Write them down, with a timeframe for each goal. See our section on goals and risk tolerance for more information.
Understand risk
Understand how much risk you want to take to achieve those goals by reading our article on risk and return. Your plan will be the pathway you take to achieve your goals. The course you take will be shaped by where you are now and where you want to get to.
Try our investing challenge to see how much you know about the risks of different types of investments.
