By Danielle Arlota CFP®,
Lead Planner, Brooklyn Plans
Alex came to us wanting to be more intentional with her money. She’s balancing student loan repayment with investing and wants to grow her wealth in a way that supports her lifestyle over time.
Recently, she’s been paying more attention to her investments—especially with headlines about the war and the volatility happening in the markets—and wanted to make sure she was on the right track.
When we reviewed her accounts together, she felt like she was well diversified. She was investing in multiple funds, including a Vanguard total U.S. stock ETF and an iShares total U.S. stock fund.
But when we zoomed out, a different picture emerged.
Across accounts, about 70% of her portfolio was concentrated in U.S. equities. She also had significant exposure to large growth stocks through funds like the S&P 500 and QQQ—many of which hold overlapping companies.
She hadn’t realized how concentrated her portfolio had become.
We walked through what true diversification looks like—not just owning multiple funds, but how those investments are spread across different parts of the market. That included increasing exposure to international markets, adding emerging markets, and reducing concentration in large U.S. growth stocks.
It also helped explain something she had been noticing: the increased ups and downs in her portfolio. With so much tied to one segment of the market, her investments were more sensitive to recent volatility than she expected.
This is something we see often—smart, consistent investors who are doing the right things, but haven’t stepped back to see how everything fits together.
And this is often where the DIY vs. professional support decision starts to show up.
It’s not about whether you understand the basics—Alex did. It’s about how those pieces come together in your actual portfolio, especially as markets shift and your goals evolve.
Many people are comfortable getting started on their own. But over time, questions around allocation, overlap, and risk tend to become more nuanced than they initially appear.
If you want to sense-check your own approach, we created a quiz that walks through some of the real-life pain points DIY investors face when constructing their portfolios. Take the quiz