Dale Jackson

Personal Finance Columnist, Payback Time

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If you’re one of the many Canadians who parked their registered retirement saving plan contribution in cash ahead of the March 1 deadline – the meter is running.

You are not required to invest an RRSP contribution, but as time goes on inflation will chip away at your cash contribution and investment opportunities could be missed.

Post-RRSP season is also a great time to meet with – or find – a financial advisor. This is normally their slow season and if they are not vacationing down south there’s a good chance they have the time for a heart-to-heart talk.

That talk should include your long-term financial goals and tolerance for risk. It should also include a plan to reach those goals through a diversified portfolio that includes all major sectors and geographic regions.

Whether it’s stocks, mutual funds, exchange traded funds, options or bonds – here are a few suggestions to get your parked RRSP contribution into drive:

Find areas of your portfolio that are under-represented. Perhaps there’s a sector or geographic region with a low weighting that could use a boost.

Top up existing holdings with low valuations. Are there good investments that haven’t proven their worth to the market yet? Perhaps a good investment is down and hasn’t found its feet yet.

Contribute to fixed income. All diversified portfolios have a fixed income component to cushion the volatility from the equity side of the portfolio. Fixed income may not produce the biggest yields, but it’s reliable – and won’t keep you awake at night.