Eat healthier, exercise more, have a better work-life balance. These are all common New Year's resolutions. But what are some resolutions that investors should make for 2024? Yahoo Finance spoke to experts across the industry for their investing advice in the New Year.

Diversify your portfolio (00:00:03)

"We should all be happy when we get higher returns in our portfolios, Apollo Global Management Chief Economist Torsten Slok said. "But the composition of these returns really matters. Thinking about, am I diversified enough in my investments?"

Do your research on undiscovered companies (00:00:44)

"It's been really easy in the past couple years to stick with the large cap names," Bailard Executive Vice President of Domestic Equities Dave Smith said. "I think it's going to be increasingly important to seek out those undiscovered names and really do the hard work on names that have been disproportionately impacted over the last year."

Create long-term balance (00:01:15)

"I think we learned a couple lessons through 2023," Vanguard Chief Economist & Global Head of Portfolio Construction Roger Aliaga-Díaz said. "Think about diversification, think about balance, especially for investors that have more of a long-term goal."

Stay the course, be risk aware (00:01:50)

"There's two resolutions in particular. We have one camp of investors that are scared with the run-up. They've flocked into cash. My advice there would be to stay the course, be risk aware," Innovator Capital Management Head of Research & Investment Strategy Tim Urbanowicz said. "And then you have the other 'stocks only go up' crowd, which are expecting the Mag 7 to produce the massive returns that they did last year. Tamper down those expectations. Consider the starting point."

Mitigate risk in the market (00:02:17)

"For investors, I think it's a great time right now to do a little bit of a gut check. We just saw incredible returns. You're seeing a lot of momentum around allocating to riskier parts of the market," John Hancock Investment Management Co-Chief Investment Strategist Emily Roland said. "It's really easy to get caught up in the excitement of reaching for risk here. And it's not that we don't want to participate. We do. We just want to be really mindful of mitigating risk by looking to higher quality and more defensive areas of the market."

Video Transcript

TORSTEN SLOK: Coming out of last year, this issue of we should all be, of course, happy when we get higher returns in our portfolios. But the composition of these returns really matter. Thinking hard about, am I diversified enough in my investments? Am I just essentially investing in the AI? Am I enough in credit, in alternatives, in other asset classes that can try to spread out my risk? Now is probably the time to begin to think about, do I want to be exposed to the same type of risk given what the rally was and how strong the gains were in a very, very small group of stocks?

The S&P 493 were essentially flat last year. That tells you that there's a lot more homework now to be done in thinking about what are the other opportunities. How can I make sure that I'm not only exposed to those seven stocks that have driven returns so much?

DAVE SMITH: I think it is important-- it's been really easy in the past couple of years to stick with the large cap names, names that have done really well, and names that are really easy to like.

I think it's going to be increasingly important to seek out those undiscovered names and really do the hard work on names that have been disproportionately impacted over the last year. So I think New Year's resolution is going to be, do the work on those undiscovered companies and come up with some really unique ideas.

ROGER ALIAGA-DIAZ: I think we learned a couple lessons through 2023. One, not necessarily going concentrated too much into cash. And the 60/40 is basically alive and well. And it has done incredibly well in 2023, up almost more than 15%.

So actually, for long-term investors that probably is a good strategy to go back to. So think about diversification, think about balance, especially for investors that may have more of a long-term goal. But they're not looking to outperform a benchmark on an annual basis.

TIM URBANOWICZ: There's two resolutions that are in particular. We have one camp of investors that are scared to death with the run up. And they've flocked into cash. My advice there would be stay the course, be risk aware, not risk off, and then you have the other stocks only go up crowd, which are expecting the Mag Seven to produce the massive returns that they did last year.

Temper down those expectations. Consider the starting point. All in all, stay on course, stay risk aware.

EMILY ROLAND: For investors, I think it's a great time right now to do a little bit of a gut check. We just saw incredible returns. You're seeing a lot of momentum around allocating to riskier parts of the market. We just saw one of the biggest moves in areas like unprofitable companies and small cap stocks.

It's really easy to get caught up in the excitement of reaching for risk here. And it's not that we don't want to participate. We do. We just want to be really mindful of mitigating risk by looking to higher quality and more defensive areas in the market this year.