Do-it-yourself (DIY) investing, self-directed investing or self-managed investing is an investment approach where the investor chooses to build and manage his or her own investment portfolio instead of hiring an agent, such as a stockbroker, investment adviser, private banker, or financial planner.
Contents
Overview
The DIY approach has pervaded many activities that were traditionally performed exclusively by institutions or trained professionals. A common approach to investing, for many investors, is to hire investment representation to build and manage their portfolios. The main duties of investment representatives are to provide ongoing advice, allocate money to asset classes and investment products, and to make portfolio management decisions.
Individual investors will often choose to manage their own investments rather than hiring outside representation. Common reasons for doing so include the avoidance of agency fees, dissatisfaction with the quality of service or the investment returns, distrust of the financial industry in general, or a desire to take control of the investing process.
In addition, the advent of discount brokerages, proliferation of free financial resources on the Internet, and the availability of online research tools have also contributed to a large increase in DIY-investing in recent years.
DIY Investor Types
A common misconception regarding DIY investing is that it mainly involves the ongoing research, selection and management of individual securities such as stocks and/or bonds. However, a managed fund, a group of securities packaged together as one investment product or “fund” and managed by a portfolio manager is available to simplify the investing process. Mutual funds, exchange-traded funds (ETFs), fund of funds (FoFs) and target date funds (TDFs) are examples of managed funds. Therefore, given the generous investment product landscape, DIY investors have various portfolio management options ranging from simple to complex.
DIY Investor Types
Process
The DIY investing process is similar to many other DIY processes and it mirrors steps found in the financial planning process used by the Certified Financial Planning Board.
- Develop financial and investment literacy.
- Outline objectives, desires, needs and priorities.
- Gather, analyze and consider relevant information.
- Develop strategies, plans and ideas.
- Construct an investment management plan.
- Implement plan.
- Monitor the plan and make changes accordingly.
Considerations
Without the use of investment representatives, DIY investors must concern themselves with various investment management activities and factors that relate to building and managing their portfolios.
Building
Managing
Advantages
Fees
The main (negative) affect of advisory and management fees is that they are generally applied regardless of the performance of an investment portfolio. This can substantially reduce an individual's wealth over time and is one of the primary reasons that many DIY Investors prefer do take control of their own investment funds.
The use of investment advisory services attracts fees that are paid indirectly and/or directly to the various stakeholders who facilitate the investment management process. This may include investment representatives, portfolio managers, brokerages, operating expenses, trading costs and miscellaneous items.
A DIY investor has the potential to reduce fees by eliminating the various middlemen located throughout the advised-client model by accessing investment products and securities through a discount brokerage.
Returns
As a result of reducing fees, DIY investors have the potential to increase their returns by retaining the expenses they would have otherwise paid to investment representatives, middlemen and financial intermediaries.
Qualitative
DIY investors may experience qualitative advantages when compared to advised-clients such as empowerment, independence and confidence.
Disadvantages
Depending on the DIY investor type, time demands will vary. Either way, some DIY investors will value the time they spend managing their own investments, but others will not. As a result, some DIY investors will consider the demands on their own time to be a disadvantage in the DIY-investing experience.