Your annual checkup & capstone

Start with what changed in your life: income, dependents, health, location, goals, time horizon, and liquidity needs. Revisit emergency savings, debt, insurance, beneficiaries, plan eligibility, and account security. Check current contribution limits and tax rules from official sources rather than relying on an old article.

Then inspect portfolio weights, diversification, fund costs, cash drag, distributions, tax records, and rebalancing drift. If evaluating performance, use a suitable broad benchmark with comparable asset exposure and include contributions, fees, taxes, and the time period. One year is a noisy measure; do not confuse relative outperformance with meeting your goal or underperformance with a broken plan.

A change may be appropriate when the goal or timeline changes, the current portfolio exceeds your ability to bear risk, a fund or provider changes materially, costs are no longer reasonable, or the original thesis is invalidated. A falling price by itself does not prove a thesis is broken; a rising price does not prove a business is sound. Identify the fact, its effect on the whole portfolio, and the alternatives before trading.

Write down the decision, date, source, expected trade-off, tax and fee impact, and next review. If no meaningful input changed, keeping the plan is a positive, active choice.

• Explain how saving differs from investing and name the risk in your next goal.
• Describe what your largest holding owns, how it earns a return, and its largest risks.
• State your allocation logic, costs, contribution habit, and rebalancing trigger.
• Name the account and tax rules you still need to verify from an official source.
• Explain what would change your plan—and what would not.