This article uses a case study to demonstrate the strategy of holding in cash and waiting for market opportunities (or volatility) before investing. It demonstrates the key benefits as well as consequences and urges clients to seek professional advice from a qualified financial planner.

As any long-term share market investor knows, markets can go up and they can go down. While most people view a falling market as a bad thing, some investors see it as a buying opportunity. After all, it’s better to pay, say, $60 for a share after a market dip than $100 for the same share at the market peak.

Of course, to be able to exploit these buying opportunities, the cash needs to be available. That means hoarding some extra cash while markets are happy in anticipation of a rainy day. It also means having a strategy around when to invest, how much to invest, how long to hold and what to invest in. There isn’t a single, off the shelf solution to this, but 58-year-old Barry provides an example of what the rainy day investor needs to think about.

This article explains the importance of diversifying investments across asset classes and simple ways to achieve investment diversification.

When it comes to financial management, no single investment will continually outperform all other investments all of the time. To minimise potential losses and to smooth your investment returns over the longer term, you should spread your portfolio across various investments. But that can be easier said than done so there are different ways to diversify.

This article explains the different asset classes. It covers cash, fixed interest, shares, property, and alternative assets. It is a good general education article to help your clients understand asset allocation in their investment portfolio.

Do you sometimes lie awake at night wondering what effect the latest share market "correction" or property "boom" or “bust” is having on your investments? Understanding the differences between the various investment assets will help you enjoy better sleep patterns knowing that a diversified portfolio can be a good way to manage investment risk.

How diversified are your investments? Or a better question might be: how well do you sleep at night?

This is an interesting article about the need to be prepared for market volatility. It discusses that sound investments recover over time and emphasises the need for diversification. It includes a 10-year investment return table.

When financial markets experience volatility, many investors obviously worry; but what are the real effects of a “volatile market”?

It is also important to note that different asset classes will outperform in different years. This is illustrated by looking at five major asset classes over the 10 years...