You should have received your 1^st quarter report on your retirement or investment account. Do you read the entire report or just look at the new balance and file it away?

These reports are an opportunity to improve your financial literacy and understand your investment portfolio. Here are 4 easy steps:

1. Make sure deposits you made into this account are correct for the first quarter.

2. If you are lucky enough to have an employer who matches some percentage of your deposits in your retirement account, next step is to determine that correct matching funds have been deposited. Don’t become alarmed if there is no matching this quarter. Many employers only deposit matching funds once a year.

3. Has your account balance increased or decreased? Investment markets go up and down, so don’t get hung up on quarterly changes in your account.  You should be aware of short-term changes in your account, but focus your efforts on long-term investment results.

4. Why has your account gone up or down? You need to compare your results against a market benchmark. Does your investment result follow the benchmark results?

Some quarterly investment reports give you a benchmark to compare your investment choices. Some do not, so it is up to you to find out if you have chosen well and if those choices are doing well against their benchmark.

An easy way to do this is to track a few investment benchmarks. If your investments are invested in equities, track the S&P 500, the DJIA, Nasdaq, Russell 2000 and FTSE.

If you are invested in fixed income investments, track the 5, 10 and 30 year Treasuries.

Tracking a few indexes on Yahoo Finance, Motley Fool, or other websites or apps like CNBC and Bloomberg will give you some basic knowledge about what is happening in the markets.

If you want to get more specific to match up your funds against their appropriate benchmark, you can usually acquire that info from the fund’s investment company website. Or Russell has indexes for all sorts of benchmarks.

Stay informed about the financial markets. Those markets impact many aspects of our lives.

Kowalczyk comments: Good Financial Cents, Get Rich Slowly are websites you might find helpful.

Kowalczyk request: If you like this blog, please like it on Facebook. Please send it out to any of your friends who may need some help with their financial literacy.