Mariel Segarra

For this one, we're going to turn to Rita Soledad Fernandez Paulino.

She says the first thing you'll want to do is look at the rate of return you're getting.

You can find that in your account statements or on the online portal for your brokerage firm.

Right.

Sometimes stock prices drop across the board for some global reason, like a recession or fears of one, for instance.

And as a coach, Soledad sees her clients get nervous when that happens.

You know, they want to pull all their money out.

And that's step two here.

Compare your rate of return to the S&P 500, which is a stock market index made up of 500 of the largest publicly traded companies in the U.S.

That'll give you a sense of how the market is doing in general.

If your investments are doing about the same as the S&P 500, Soledad says you're probably in a good position.

But if not, you'll want to rebalance your portfolio.

And this can get complicated.

You know, it depends on your situation, how much risk you want to take on, how long it is until you'll want to use the money.

We have done a couple deep dive episodes on investing, so check those out.

Also, when you're checking your investments, pay attention to fees.

You'll find those listed for individual funds under the term expense ratio.

You may find that the fees in your retirement plan are higher than this, but she says to go for funds with lower expense ratios when you can.

We'll have more Life Kit after the break.

All right, so that's the annual stuff.