As the year draws to a close, this is the perfect time to review your portfolio.
Reviewing your portfolio allows you to reassess your goals, analyse your investment results, and better position yourself for the year ahead.
This is especially important now as the market is marked by persistent volatility and the start of a possible falling interest rate cycle.
Follow as The Smart Investor provides a five-step checklist to help you tighten your investment strategy and enter 2026 with clarity and confidence.
1. Review Your Portfolio Performance for the Year
The first step on the investment checklist is to review how your investments fared over the past year.
Look at your investments and understand what worked, what didn’t perform up to standards and why, and check if your risk tolerance and allocation still matches your investment goals.
Compare how your portfolio fared year-to-date (YTD) with indexes such as Straits Times Index (SGX: ^STI), which had increased 20.8%, or with the MSCI World Index (WORLD: MSCI), which had seen an 18.4% increase.
Identify your top performers, review if they still have room to grow, and look at the macro- and micro-factors that can affect the company’s future performance.
Look into your underperforming stocks and determine if their balance sheets are still healthy and whether the companies would have a chance of rebounding.
Review your allocation and ensure your portfolio is well-spread across countries and between different sectors such as REITs, technology, consumer, and financials.
Having a clear picture of how your investments performed in 2025 will set the foundation for the year ahead.
2. Rebalance If Your Allocation Has Drifted
There were big market movements in 2025.
For example, SBS Transit Ltd (SGX: S61) has seen a 29.1% YTD increase in its stock price, DBS Group Holdings Ltd (SGX: D05) is not far behind with a 26.5% gain, and CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust (CICT) (SGX: C38U) is up by 20.2%.
The end of the year is a great time to review your target allocation and see how it has changed compared to your current holdings.
Strong market moves could have shifted your risk profile, especially with REITs and bank stocks rallying in recent months.
Adjust positions to reduce holdings that exceed your target risk level and increase underinvested sectors.
Certain sectors, such as REITs, stand to benefit from interest rate cuts. Consider increasing your exposure to these sectors to gain an upper hand going into 2026 if you have the view that we’re in a rate-cutting cycle.
Rebalancing your portfolio protects your gains and keeps risk aligned with your long-term plan.
3. Reassess Dividend Income and Payout Sustainability
Singapore’s market makes dividend investing accessible and convenient, and it forms a major part of many Singapore investors’ returns.
Check to see if your invested companies exhibit solid earnings, have good cash flow, and have histories of increasing dividend payouts.
Focus on key indicators such as dividend-payout ratios and leverage levels.
Also, consider sector-specific risks that might impact future dividends, such as refinancing risks for REITs, net interest margin (NIM) trends for banks, and the status of tourism recovery for travel-related companies.
When your dividends are backed by strong fundamentals, you will have less to worry about in 2026.
4. Identify New Opportunities for 2026
With potential Fed rate cuts, 2026 brings opportunities for some sectors.
REITs, healthcare, technology infrastructure, travel, and defensive sectors are some potential industries that will stand to benefit.
Locally, some quality companies have promising outlooks going into 2026. They include:
- Frasers Centrepoint Trust (FCT) (SGX: J69U), whose gross revenue jumped 10.8% to S$389.6 million in the financial year ended 30 September 2025
- CICT, which paid a distribution of S$0.0562 per unit in H1 2025, up 3.5% from a year ago
- ST Engineering (SGX: S63), with 9% year-on-year (YoY) growth in revenue to S$9.1 billion for the first nine months of 2025), and a record order book of S$32.6 billion
Globally, there are also opportunities in the US tech sector:
- Meta Platforms’ (NASDAQ: META) total revenue surged 26% YoY in Q3 2025 to US$51.2 billion
- Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (NYSE: TSM), with its net revenue rising 40.8% YoY in Q3 2025 to US$33.1 billion
For your year-end investment checklist, identifying future opportunities matters more than backwards-looking results.
5. Refresh Your Financial Goals and Investment Plan
Changes in life, such as starting a family or embarking on a new career, often mean changes in your financial goals.
New financial objectives can require you to modify the monthly contribution to your investments and rethink your emergency funds and insurance coverage.
Set clear targets for your retirement corpus and long-term investments.
A good investment strategy incorporates change and continues to have the necessary flexibility in order to adapt to evolving requirements.
What This Means for Investors
Starting 2026 strong begins with a portfolio review.
A disciplined and strategic year-end review of your investments is crucial.
This proactive approach enhances your decision-making, helps prevent emotional investing, and establishes long-term consistency.
Your investments can compound significantly over time from what may seem like small changes, such as rebalancing allocation, reviewing dividend stocks, and identifying potential opportunities.
Get Smart: Finish Strong, Start Stronger
The smartest investors treat the end of the year as an anchor point to review, reset, refocus, and prepare for whatever the markets may bring next.
Taking the time now to run through a structured review can put you on firmer footing and give you a stronger sense of direction as you head into 2026.
This could be the fastest way to jump from a “newbie” investor to a seasoned pro. Our beginner’s guide shows everything you need to know to buy your first stock and beyond. Click here to download it for free today.
Follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Telegram for the latest investing news and analyses!
Disclosure: Wenting does not own shares in any of the companies mentioned.
