Looking for a smoother ride in choppy waters

To make the most of the rest of the year, one important wealth management question you should be asking yourself now is how diversified do you need your investment portfolio to be.

You could follow this with more questions: are you invested in a single country or region? What about industry sectors? And how is the mix of your asset types looking?

These questions, and your answers to them, can help you review and build your investing strategy so that you can provide for your retirement objectives. Having an understanding of some of the theory behind a good strategy is a good place to start.

If you are serious about receiving the best financial advice in Spain, chances are any adviser you choose will recommend that, in the absence of a committed property investment strategy, you do not invest too heavily in Spanish real estate.

However, for the enthusiastic expat who has recently fallen in love with the country and the idea of owning a small piece, or perhaps a larger chunk, of its picturesque and romantic charms, it can be hard to resist.

But the truth is that there is often a reason why a property might be going at a bargain basement rate. For example, investment in whole abandoned villages in isolated locations such as Aragón and Galicia has recently become something of a phenomenon, when the reality is that the outlay, which can be under €100,000, will buy you little more than a dilapidated shell without water, gas, electricity, telephone or internet services. So, making your bargain purchase habitable in these circumstances is likely to cost at least ten times as much the initial purchase price.