Reviewing Your Investments: When to Check Your Portfolio?

Speaker A00:00:00

So today I thought I'd start with some statistics. You know, you always like Ralphie because he brings us statistics. Well, think about this one.This is a 2023 CNBC survey, and the results were pretty amazing. It found that 46% of Americans didn't know what their 401k contributions are invested in. 46%. Well, think about this, though.It rises to 54% for those people in the age group of 18 to 34. I just found that amazing. 54% have no idea what their contributions are invested in. Then we found this survey.And I want to thank Abby, my VA, for this. She found this survey. This is from BlackRock. A 2025 survey found that 40%. Yeah, you heard me right.40% of investors review their retirement accounts monthly. Okay, well, here's the rest of the story. 26% review them quarterly, 16% yearly or less. And listen to this one. And I was amazed when I read this.17% don't even check them at all. Which lead us to this study. Finra. There was a study called Investors in the US The Changing Landscape. And this is what this report showed us.21% of investors don't think they pay any fees for investing. Now, that's not the topic of today's show. I actually talked about that a few days ago, but that's a big deal.And 17% we're using 17 again, said they don't know how much money they pay in fees. And here's one more piece of statistic. This is from NerdWallet. This was a NerdWallet survey.68% of investors, almost two thirds, said they don't know the best way to invest according to their values. What are we talking about? Their financial illiteracy. And listen to this statistic. 23% say most of their investments actually align with their values.23%. But think about the other side of that. That means 77% of their investments don't align with their values.And I'm going to share one more statistic with you. Only about 50%. Now, we're talking about us. Households here can answer three basic money questions, right? And I just found that sad. This is true.This many people don't know which investments are riskier. And they often get these questions wrong. And that's something we need to change. Which leads us to today's listener question.Ralph, I check my investments every single day, and it makes me anxious. How often should I really be looking at them? Well, let me just tell you right now, that is to the extreme.Now Listen, I actually tell you a story in a couple minutes about a client that checks them more than once a day, but that's to the extreme. And yes, you're making yourself crazy like this. This is not the thing to be checking every single day. The markets don't work that way.So how often should you be checking your portfolio? Every day, Once a year, or somewhere in between? Well, today I want to help you build a rhythm that brings peace instead of stress.Are you ready for some peace? Well, let's get to it. On today's show, this is Financially Confident Christian.Your daily dose of gospel, grounded insight and faith driven tips to help you break the cycle of financial shame with confidence. Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Ralph. I want to just welcome you to Financially Confident Christian.My goal is to help you break that cycle of financial shame and do it with confidence. And I've helped clients just like you, people who are stressed about investments, they're sick of watching the markets go up and down daily.First thing I'll tell you right now, key takeaway, before we even get rolling, stop doing that. The daily ebb and flow will drive you crazy. In fact, it will make you physically ill. I'm talking, this is a real thing.It will make you physically ill.I have seen people that are physically ill about this, but on the other side, I've seen people come to peace when they set a rhythm for reviewing these portfolios. And that's what we're talking about today. We're going to talk about how to build that rhythm because that rhythm is how we find peace.And listen, our God, Christ wants us to be at peace. So let me tell you about a client I worked with. I had this client and he was a brilliant investment guy.I mean, he knew, he honestly, he knew more about investments than I did. But the problem is this dude was on his phone 24 hours a day checking this market, checking that market.He was constantly living in this state of anxiety.He said me one time, he said, Ralph, I don't even eat during the day when the markets are open because my stomach is a constant battle of the boom, boom, boom going off all the time. He was constantly anxious. But here's the problem with being anxious. A lot of people don't talk about this. These financial knucklehead gurus on tv.Being anxious like that leads you to making rash decisions. It leads you to making reactionary decisions.And when you make those reactionary decisions, I don't know about you, but most of the time they turn out to not be the best decisions, do they? But I work with him. And I said, listen, guy, I get it. You're a smart guy. You are key into this investment thing. But I said, let's take a step back.Let's start to think about these things in the long term. And I convinced them to start talking about things quarterly. We changed that schedule from daily to courting.I gotta be honest with you, I'm not sure he did it. At first he's like, Ralph, I don't know if I can do this. But over time, he started to see, you know what, Ralph? My stress has dropped.And here's the other side of this. His portfolio actually grew better. When he stopped reacting and doing it every day. What did he found? He found peace.And I found this quote from a financial planner, his name is Carl Richards. And he says, this risk is what's left over when you think you've thought of everything. And I love that because think about this, reviewing too often.If you, if you're that person that's checking that constantly. And listen, I got clients that do this every month. Every week they're checking their employee investment portfolio.And I'm not an investment advisor, but I hear from these clients and they get into this feeling like everything is at risk. They're like everything is burning down, Ralph. And it's a mindset.And if you live in that mindset, you're going to be constantly even in fear and you're going to be reacting and you're going to make bad results. So you're ready to stop making those bad results and find peace. Well, let's get to it. Here's my honest to God opinion. Daily reviews.If you do that daily, it's going to magnify every little swing. We talked about it the other day. Markets go up and down. That's what they do. That's what they intentionally do.And when you have those little dips, you look at your statement like, ralph, I just lost $2,000 yesterday. And then you start to think, well, I better move something. Maybe you're sitting there right now and you do this.Maybe you know somebody who does this. They drive themselves crazy, don't they? They're constantly living in this anxiety, oh, I better change, I better do this.Now, on the other extreme, I've got some clients, what the statistics say 17% don't check at all. Then I've got some clients that check them annually. The problem with doing that, I think that you overlook adjustments that really do need to happen.There are things that happen Let me just tell you right now, take a little aside here for a second. There are things in the headlines that do make an impact on your investments. Those are times to make those adjustments.They're not daily, they're not monthly. But annually is probably not enough. There are times to rebalance your portfolio. And that's why I want to talk to you about a rhythm.And I believe the best rhythm for most people, that depends on how, how much you invest and what you're investing in. But the best rhythm, I think, is a quarterly review, quarterly, four times a year.When you do that, it brings awareness and it brings that peace of mind because it builds that awareness and it builds that peace. You're not constantly wondering what happened yesterday, what happened the day before, what happened last week.And as part of that, you want to keep your goals front and center. Listen, before you do any investing, and I've talked about this in a series, understand what your goals are.Because if not, you're going to constantly be reactionary. You're going to be watching the headlines and go, I can't believe this just happened. How does this affect my investment portfolio?Well, know your goals. A lot of people go into investment, they have no idea what their goals are.So measure those goals and stop reacting because, listen, God calls us to peace. A lot of people don't want to talk about this. Why do this? Show faith in finance. It'd be real easy to live in the finance world.Oh, Ralph, my portfolio is soaring. But God doesn't want you to constantly be in that feeling of anxiety. Trust his steady hand. Live in peace. Not anxiety, but trust. He is always steady.Which leads me to our Bible verse today. And this is probably one of my favorite verses from the Bible, and it's Paul in the book of Philippians, chapter four, verses six to seven.I'm sure you've heard it a million times, but I want you to really think and ponder on this one. Meditate on this one again. Philippians 4, verses 6 and 7. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation.By prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Just pause for a second.Doesn't that make you feel good? Don't be anxious about anything, but in every situation. What does the Lord telling us? Every single situation.And what's he calling us to do by prayer petition, ask him, Listen, God wants to help you. God wants you to live in peace. God wants you to not live in anxiety and be thankful for what he's given you.Present your request to God and the peace of God. Think about peace, right? What's the biggest peace you can find? Is there any bigger peace than being at peace with God?What does it say in the scripture Transcends all understanding. And what's he going to do? He's going to guard our hearts and our minds. And I just want to capitalize on a couple things.Guard your heart, Anything, everything. Prayer. These are all keys to this. And they're the real reason that we got to stay focused. Now, listen, I got a bonus scripture for you.Yes, it's bonus day. So here's this one's from Proverbs, chapter 17, verse 27. And I thought this was important because we've talked a lot about knowledge.And this is the Bible verse again, Proverbs 17:27. The one who has knowledge uses words with restraint. And whoever has understanding is even tempered.Now, as I was preparing for this show, I started thinking, would most people think that I am one that has restraint? Probably not. And think about how that works with the market. If you're one of the people like most people, like me, you see something going on.This is money you worked hard for. It's so easy to not be even tempered. But what's the scripture calling us? Use restraint, understand. Use knowledge. Build that understanding.How about we pray together right now? Lord, we come to you today, and we know that it's easy to react, Lord. It's easy to be overreactionary.So we just pray right now that you would help us to find peace when this financial anxiety arises. Because, Lord, we're human beings. We're flesh. We know we're going to find these times of anxiety.And Lord, as we think about that, help us to build these rhythms like we talked about today on the show, to really balance and to understand and be consistent as we talked about all throughout this series. And, Lord, we just thank you for your faithfulness that transcends even these market swings. You said your belief transcends all understanding, Lord.Help us to be anchored in that. Help us to live that in our lives every day. We ask this in pure confidence in the name of Jesus. Amen.All right, are you ready for your action item today? Real simple action item today. I want you to get your calendar out.Now, maybe you have a paper calendar like my wife, or you've got the electronic version. Here's what I want you to do.I want you to go right now and put on your calendar every quarter that you're going to go review your investment portfolio. Just put it right on there. Real simple. Ralph said, check my investment portfolio this quarter, this quarter, this quarter, just four times a year.And stop looking at it daily. Hey, stop looking at it hourly. Listen, with our phones, it's easy to pop up. The investments go, oh, the market's crashing today. Stop doing that.Fight that urge. Because when you fight that urge, you're going to move beyond fear and you're going to move beyond reaction. Because here's the thing.I said this a few minutes ago. Check in daily. That daily in and out is just going to build anxiety.And like I said, also, if you don't check it quarterly, annually, it might be too infrequent. But don't be one of the 17% that never looks at it. You got to look at these things.And that's why I'm saying that quarterly, to me, is a healthy rhythm and focus on your goals. One of the reasons I really hit that today. Don't worry about those headlines. Those headlines are just to get a reaction. They're to sell clicks.It's like they call, you know, clickbait. That's what they're trying to do. They're trying to get you to react and freak out, because most of the time. Here's another little secret.Those headlines probably don't even affect your portfolio because you're probably not even invested in those things. And remember this. Where do you anchor your heart? Anchor your heart in God's peace.And when the market feels like it's burning down all around you, remember this. There's one person you can trust, and that's Jesus Christ. Now make sure you join me tomorrow.Tomorrow we're going to talk about moving beyond the piggy bank. I'm going to share a funny story with you. When I was a kid, I got one of those nice ceramic piggy banks.Well, it didn't last long because I wanted to go to the arcade. So tomorrow we're going to talk about investing for your children's future beyond the piggy bank.Now, here's one of the things I want to invest in you. I just finished writing my third book. It's called how to Become a Financially Confident Christian.It is 30 years of working with people just like you, people who are struggling, people who are looking for direction or looking for that wisdom. And I want to give you a copy of it absolutely free. All you've got to do is go to this website.It's financiallyconfidentchristian.com becoming again that's the name of the book, how to become a Financially confident Christian and you can get it absolutely free. Go to financiallyconfidentchristian.com/becoming and here's something else I want you to do. Give that link to as many people as you can.I want to give away as many books as I can this month, so send them the link. Financiallyconfidentchristian.com/Becoming say, hey, you want to get a free book? I know this guy Ralph.He's a little crazy, but he'll give you a copy of his book and encourage them to read it. And as I close today, I just want you to remember this. Even when the market is up and down bouncing all around you, remember this.God is in control and you can live in peace when you trust him. You don't need the headlines to guide your heart. Let God do that, because God's timing is better than any worry.So I want to encourage you today, go be that financially confident Christian that I know you can be. I have confidence in you. Have confidence in yourself. Stay financially savvy. God bless you and you have a great day.