• What are my age, health, dependency, wealth, and assured income source circumstances?

• Are there current changes in circumstances driving my decision to invest? Lifestyle change? Retirement? An inheritance? New responsibilities in life? Or some other catalyst?

• What are the essential facts?
• How much current investment income do I need to rely on?
• What is the minimum growth required to meet my long-term objectives?
• What is my personal trade-off between income and growth?
• What is my psychological tolerance for living with widely varying outcomes?

• To estimate income and growth, my total assets matter
• Given my future needs, what proportion of my total assets can be allocated to "lifestyle" rather than "working" assets?
• What personal preferences constrain the amount of money I want to invest? Do I want some assets set aside for heirs? Do I want some assets set aside for contributions to charities? Do I have attachments to some service providers? Or maybe some other constraints?

• How much overall risk should I take with my financial assets, and how comfortable am I with fluctuations in portfolio value? (Risk is considered to be both potential loss of principal and fluctuations in value. Be aware that higher personal income requirements and higher equity growth requirements come with higher risk. )

• Are my assets in currently taxable portfolios, or in IRAs or some other tax deferred form?

• Do I want to diversify my investments outside of the United States?