Patience and Balance: The Art of Baking Bread

For some, baking bread from scratch is one of life's great pleasures. And while it may seem tricky and mysterious, the truth is that making bread can be easy once you set aside the time and get to know your ingredients.

The basis of almost every bread is flour, water and yeast. Flour provides the structure, water activates the ingredients and brings them together, and yeast makes the dough rise by consuming sugars and releasing bubbles. But how these components will work together is not always an exact science.

But isn't that the point sometimes? Sure, a recipe is a fantastic starting place for getting your bread going. But since bread is like a living, breathing thing, it's important to be patient to make it properly, and to be flexible. You won't really know if the mix is just right until you give it time to rise and develop. You often have to be prepared to tinker.

Like making bread, creating your investment portfolio can require tweaks, adjustments and evaluation. It's not a one-time-only job. You might have started with a mix of asset classes tailored to match your risk tolerance and goals, but investments don't always follow predictable paths. Maybe one investment brought you larger returns than expected, and another type, smaller. Or perhaps you only intended a small percentage of your portfolio to be foreign investments, but those assets have grown much faster — or slower — than expected. Whatever the case, it's important to know that your portfolio's actual asset allocation can end up drifting away from the targets you had in mind.

If this happens, you might want to consider rebalancing. By moving assets between investments to maintain your desired balance, you can restore your asset allocation and bring it back to your original plan. But that's not the only reason to consider rebalancing your portfolio. A change in life stage or a shift in financial goals could also prompt you to look at your asset mix and alter the balance of your investments.

The Portfolio Analyzer, found under My Portfolio, allows you to easily view your portfolio's mix of investments and monitor risk. Drill down to sector and regional exposures or check your holdings to see where you might be concentrated.

With bread-making, evaluation starts a few hours after you mix your dough. If it's too wet, you'll need to recalibrate the moisture by kneading in some flour. If it's too dry, you might have to mix in a few drops of water. If you're baking on a cool day, the yeast will develop slowly and it will take longer to rise. If it's a hot, humid day, the dough will rise faster than you expected, and you might need to slow it down in a cool place. Similar to your investment portfolio, there are a number of considerations to take into account when checking for the right balance.

In the kitchen, whether you attempt a country loaf for sandwiches or a crusty baguette for toast, the principles are the same. Give yourself lots of time, understand what you're working with and don't be afraid to balance things out to get what you planned.