How often should you check your investment portfolio?

It's a funny thing about investing: the more information we have, the more tempted we can be to do something with it. 

And frankly, it's never been easier to check on your portfolio - not just day by day, but minute by minute.  

A few taps on your phone, a quick swipe on a tablet, and you can see how your shares, super, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and plenty of other investments are performing in real time.  

Add in the 24/7 news cycle and social media, and we can find ourselves inundated with information. 

Does knowing more make you a better investor? Sometimes, I suspect, it can do the opposite, because over-tracking can lead to overreacting. 

Here's what to weigh up. 

Long-term investors don't need to react to every market move 

If you're investing for a long-term goal, your investment timeframe is likely to be measured in years, potentially decades. 

Even so, it can be tempting to check your portfolio weekly - or even more frequently. 

The problem is that markets move every day.  

Some days are good, some are bad and occasionally they are downright ugly.  

Volatility is part of investing, particularly when you own growth assets such as shares and share-focused ETFs.  

But here's the catch. 

When you check your portfolio every morning, you're likely to see plenty of movement that has absolutely nothing to do with your long-term financial goals.  

This can fuel the urge to act. And that doesn't always end well. 

Losses can feel more urgent when you see them every day 

Checking investments daily can shape investor thinking in several ways. 

First, there's the background 'noise' to contend with.  

When we are bombarded with clickbait headlines or social media posts touting market doom and gloom, even modest market falls can start to feel like a disaster.  

We also know from behavioural science that investors tend to feel the pain of a loss far more than the joy of a gain. This can mean a drop in asset markets triggers a fear reaction. And fear is not a good basis for financial decisions. It can make it tempting to bail out of an investment at the worst possible time - right when the market is down. 

There's a difference between monitoring and meddling 

None of this means you should hold onto every investment indefinitely.  

However, there is a big difference between reacting to every market movement and undertaking regular reviews of your portfolio and investment strategy. 

Put simply, one of the easiest ways to avoid emotional investing is to monitor rather than meddle.  

How often do you need to review your portfolio? 

Every investor's circumstances are different, so what works for one person may not be right for you. 

What matters is that you decide in advance how often you'll give your portfolio a health check. 

For some investors, that might mean a quarterly review. For others, a more detailed review once or twice a year may make sense. 

Major changes in your life can also be a good reason to review your portfolio.

Perhaps your income has changed. Maybe you're approaching retirement. You might have taken on a mortgage, received an inheritance, or simply realised that your tolerance for investment risk is different from what it was five years ago. These are all genuine reasons to reassess your investments. 

When doing nothing can be sensible 

Having a diversified portfolio, a clear investment timeframe and cash set aside for short-term needs can make it easier to stay invested when markets become unsettled. 

If your investment strategy ticks all these boxes, there's probably no need to make drastic decisions every time markets wobble. 

The reality is that markets will rise. Markets will fall. There will always be another crisis, another 'hot' investment, and another headline-grabbing prediction about what happens next. 

You don't need to respond to all of them.  

As investors, we can be tempted to buy when things look rosy, often after markets have risen, and sell when things look grim, after markets have fallen. That sort of behaviour can be damaging to long-term wealth. 

Successful investing is often less about making brilliant decisions every week, and more about making sensible decisions, sticking to them and giving them enough time to play out.  

If you find yourself checking your portfolio several times a day, try turning off the notifications, putting the app away and reminding yourself of your long-term plan and why you started investing in the first place. 

There are plenty of times when the best investment decision you make is to do nothing at all.