3 Ways Financial Alerts Benefit Your Portfolio

Avoid Risking Your Future Net Worth

How people manage their investments in 2015 is far different from the way they did in 2008. And compared to the 90s? Or before the age of the Internet? Things have changed course dramatically. Today, protecting your future net worth and retirement is as much about being informed as it is about the investing itself.

Financial alerts are key resources that not only simplify the management of your portfolio and investments, but also help take the stress out of navigating toward your long-term financial goals.

But, not all financial alerts are the same. What kind of information do you need, and how do you benefit?

“Traditional” Financial Alerts Vs. Critically Informative Alerts

Generally speaking, financial alerts give you updates on information related to stocks or funds in your investment portfolio. In a very broad sense, financial alerts help you track your portfolio of many individual stocks and funds that encompass your total holdings.

The types of traditional updates are numerous, akin to those you might find on Yahoo! Finance. They include: 

• Earnings announcements or news about a company (the most common alert people receive)
• Earnings reports
• Price alerts – when a stock hits a particular price target 

Financial alerts of this variety are based on generic information and rarely help you understand where your overall portfolio stands or how you’re tracking toward your desired future net worth.

On the other hand, wealth innovation companies have developed portfolio tracking apps and software that deliver alerts specific to your total portfolio. Unlike traditional financial alerts, these applications aggregate your many investment accounts and alert you to information based on your portfolio structure and holdings. On occasion, you may receive more general financial news when it is significant and deeply impacts your portfolio, but these kinds of alerts often focus on the structure of your own portfolio and the investments that comprise it. 

For instance, should several mutual funds within your portfolio invest heavily in Apple stock, you might receive an alert notifying you of an overinvestment in the tech company and an unwelcome increase in your portfolio risk. With this information, you are able to reallocate your funds and adjust your portfolio to a suitable risk tolerance.

3 Advantages Of New-Age Financial Alerts

Portfolio tracking software and smartphone apps that provide the kind of specific alerts discussed above simplify investing in a number of ways, but none are more impactful than the following three:

1. Stop sorting through scores of investment information.
   Among the wealth of financial information out there, how much of it is useful? How much of it do you really need? If you’re scouring through news that isn’t helpful, you’re wasting your precious time. You might even make knee-jerk decisions based on irrelevant alerts. Many people overtrade their portfolio due to such reactions.
   
   “New-age” alerts and software wade through all financial information to give you only that which is pertinent, saving you time and the stress of deciphering what’s important.

2. Get only the information you need, when you need it.
   Let’s face it, your time is very limited, and the minutes you do have need to be used intelligently. So, if you only receive relevant and useful alerts, you know you’re spending your time on the most critical information. With these alerts, you’re more aware of not only what’s happening in the financial world, but also how it’s impacting your future net worth.

3. Be more efficient in communicating with your advisor.
   If you’re unaware of news impacting your portfolio, you might not speak with your advisor about correcting potential problems. Some apps empower you with the ability to immediately share alerts with your advisors. Start the conversation and ensure that you and your advisor are making decisions based on relevant, specific information. More useful dialogue between you and your advisor leads to a better experience and gives you more control over your investments.

The investment world has changed drastically over the years, and this transformation only continues to progress. With the advent of investment tracking software, stressing over the unknown is a thing of the past. Take control of your future net worth and maximize the use of your precious time with relevant, impactful financial alerts.

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