Does Your Investment Strategy Reflect What Matters Most?

Investing your assets in the securities markets makes it easy to focus on performance reports, risk scores, and account balances. However, a more important question is: Does your investment strategy align with your financial goals, tolerance for risk, and timelines?

More investors are thinking beyond returns and asking whether their portfolios reflect their values and aspirations. Whether that means avoiding investment in specific industries, supporting social or environmental causes, or simply ensuring their investments align with long-term personal goals, the focus has shifted from growth alone to growth with purpose.

Your portfolio should do more than hold a mix of investments. It should be structured to support the priorities of the life you want to live. When your investment strategy isn’t aligned with your goals and priorities, it might look solid on paper but fall far short in real life.

Today’s blog explores five common questions people ask about aligning their investments with their aspirations:

• Are My Investments Helping Me Pursue My Long-Term Goals?
• How Much Risk Should I Be Taking Right Now?
• Do My Investments Reflect My Values?
• Am I Diversified in a Way That Fits My Risk Tolerance?
• Does My Advisor Truly Understand What Matters Most to Me?

At iWealth, our Minnesota-based investment advisors will take the time to understand your current financial circumstances, provide financial guidance, and help you pursue long-term financial independence.

Are My Investments Helping Me Pursue My Long-Term Goals?

Your portfolio may be growing due to the performance of the securities markets, but is it helping you move closer to the future you want for your family?

This is one of the most critical questions to consider, especially if you plan to retire early, buy a second home, fund a child’s education, or create a legacy for future generations.

It’s easy to fall into the trap of measuring progress by market returns instead of focusing on aspirational milestones.

For example, let’s consider this hypothetical scenario in which your investment performance and goal pursuit don’t match:

Julie, a 55-year-old professional near Waseca, had built up $700,000 in investable assets over several years. Her goal is to shift from full-time to part-time work by age 60 so she can travel and care for her aging parents, while still staying active in her career.

When she met with a fiduciary financial advisor in Waseca to review her portfolio, she discovered that 85% of her assets were invested in equities geared for growth, not income or stability. While the portfolio had performed well during a bull market, it wasn’t built to support her next phase: scaling back her workload and preparing for a more stable, reliable income in retirement.

As she approached retirement, it became clear that her risk tolerance needed to shift. What once made sense during her peak earning years, chasing higher returns, was now exposing her to unnecessary volatility. One major market swing could set her timeline back by years, especially with such a heavy concentration in equities.

Unlike earlier stages of life, there’s less time to recover from losses when you’re near retirement. You only get one shot to get this right. That realization prompted her to rebalance her portfolio toward a mix that could better support income, manage risk, and keep her retirement plans intact.

The result? A strategy better aligned with her timeline and one that gave her clarity, flexibility, and confidence about the years ahead.

How Much Risk Should I Be Taking Right Now?

Risk tolerance isn’t a static concept. It changes with age, goals, circumstances, income needs, and life experiences. What felt like an acceptable level of risk at 40 may not feel right at 60, especially if you’re entering retirement or experiencing other transitions.

Here are three relatable hypothetical examples of how risk tolerance can vary by life stage, even when portfolios may look similar on the surface:

• Kevin is in his early 40s, living in southern Minnesota, with two kids and a stable career. He focuses on long-term growth and doesn’t plan to touch his retirement savings for at least 25 years.His risk tolerance is relatively high because he has plenty of time to recover from down markets. He’s comfortable with market ups and downs because he knows that it’s normal stock market behavior. He has time to recover and contributes regularly to his retirement and non-retirement accounts. A growth-oriented portfolio with a higher equity allocation suits his current timelines and goals.
• Dana, 58, is planning on retiring in five to seven years. She has saved about $600,000 in her company-sponsored 401(k) plan. She plans to retire around age 65 but may consider an earlier exit if offered a retirement package that makes sense.Based on current age and risk tolerance, she’s less comfortable with sharp market declines and wants to start reducing potential volatility in her portfolios. A more balanced portfolio, perhaps 60% equities and 40% fixed income, could give her continued growth with less exposure to major swings.
• Mark (69) and Teresa (67) recently retired. Teresa retired after 30 years as a paralegal this year, and Mark retired as a police officer in 2024.They are now beginning to draw from their savings to offset their loss of employment income. Their primary concern isn’t maximizing returns; it’s preserving principal and generating a predictable income stream that funds their lifestyle.Their risk tolerance has declined significantly now that Teresa is fully retired, and their portfolio reflects that with a more conservative mix, including dividend-paying stocks, preferred stocks, convertibles, bonds, and cash reserves to weather short-term market dips without being forced to sell any of their other investments at the wrong times.

iWealth Tip: Risk needs context. It’s not just about how you feel but what you need your money to do and when. This is less about risk tolerance and more about your capacity to take risks. This is where the services of financial advisors in Minnesota can be of great assistance and value.

Watch our podcast on “How Often Should You Check Your Investment Portfolio?”

Do My Investments Reflect My Values?

Values-based investing has become a key consideration when building an investment strategy that reflects your beliefs. But it’s not always clear if your current portfolio reflects those priorities.

If your investments don’t align with your values, start by identifying what matters most to you. Then, talk to a fiduciary financial advisor, like iWealth, who understands how to integrate those priorities into a sophisticated investment strategy.

At iWealth, we help clients across Minnesota and nationwide incorporate personal values into their investment plans without sacrificing the pursuit of long-term goals. There are innovative, strategic ways to align money with aspirations.

When your investments reflect what you care about, your plan feels more purposeful and personal. However, values-based investing isn’t about a series of compromises; it’s about alignment with beliefs and goals. And with the right guidance, you can have both.

Watch iWealth CEO, Brad Connors, talk about “Goal Based Investing: The Fun Side Of Smart Financial Planning”

Am I Diversified in a Way That Fits My Life?

Proper diversification considers your goals, timelines, risk tolerance, and need for the assets or income from the assets. Diversification also acts as a form of protection. It helps reduce the impact of market volatility so you’re not forced to sell at the wrong time or derail your long-term plan.

While chasing short-term gains may feel productive, pursuing long-term goals creates a more stable path, especially when you’re accumulating assets for retirement, supporting a family, or planning a legacy.

Here are a few hypothetical examples where diversification could have made a big difference:

1. Too Much Tech, Bad Timing: Brian, 50, is heavily invested in tech stocks during a market upswing. But when the sector started declining, so did a big part of his portfolio, just as he needed liquidity to pay for his daughter’s college tuition.

Diversification fix: A mix of bonds, higher dividend stocks, and other asset classes that could help him pursue a set of five-year goals.

2. Real Estate Rich, Cash Poor: Lisa, newly retired, had most of her wealth tied up in rental properties. When major medical expenses hit, she had to borrow to pay those bills.

Diversification fix: Including liquid assets like short-term bonds or cash could have provided much-needed flexibility.

3. Chasing Trends, Losing Ground: Sam constantly shifted money between the hottest economic sectors. When markets turned volatile, his portfolio lost more than it should have because he had not built a more stable foundation.

Diversification fix: A consistent, long-term allocation could have provided more stable growth and income with reduced risk. Diversification is the primary way financial advisors manage risk in their portfolios.

Your portfolio should grow with you, evolve with your needs, and help protect what you’ve worked hard to build, no matter what the market does next.

Consider iWealth for Your Investment Strategy Needs

At iWealth, investment planning should start with what matters most to you, not just the future direction of the markets. We take the time to understand your goals, values, and timeline, then we tailor a strategy that supports the life you want to live.

Whether you’re building wealth, preparing for retirement, or navigating a life transition, our team helps you align your portfolio with your aspirations, not artificial performance benchmarks.

With offices in Waseca, Mankato, and Bloomington; we serve clients throughout Minnesota and nationwide, offering personalized guidance, fiduciary care, and ongoing support to help you invest with clarity, purpose, and confidence, now and into the future.

Ready to learn more? Connect with us to start a conversation.