Over the past three months I have been writing a second book with Scott Keefer.  Scott has commerce and post graduate financial planning degrees and is joining the firm.  The book is called 'Its Time You New the Truth - Building Investment Portfolios that Work!'

The book looks at the key aspects of building an investment portfolio.  These are:

• Focus on asset allocation as the long term driver of portfolio returns.
• Minimise trading and tax costs
• Be well diversified
• Stick to your portfolio over time

It is worth considering what people who started investing 4 or 5 months ago are now thinking.  The Australian share investments are probably down up to 10%.  Now would be the worse time to sell.  It is important to focus on the fact that volatility is part of the investment experience.  In the long term higher volatility asset classes like Australian shares produce higher expected returns.