Rebalancing involves selling assets that have appreciated the most and using the proceeds to shore up assets that have lagged. This brings your portfolio’s asset mix back into balance and enforces the discipline of selling high/buying low. Rebalancing doesn’t necessarily improve your portfolio’s returns, especially if it means selling asset classes that continue to perform well. But it can be an essential way to keep your portfolio’s risk profile from climbing too high.

Where and How to Rebalance

If it’s been a while since your last rebalance, your portfolio might be heavy on stocks and light on bonds. A portfolio that started at 60% stocks and 40% bonds 10 years ago could now hold more than 80% stocks.

Another area to check is the mix of international versus U.S. stocks. International stocks have led in 2025, but that followed a long run of outperformance for U.S. stocks, so your portfolio might lack international exposure. (Keeping about a third of your equity exposure outside the U.S. is reasonable if you want to align with Morningstar’s global market portfolio.)

Other imbalances might exist. Growth stocks have gained nearly twice as much as value stocks over the past three years. You might also be overweight in specialized assets such as gold and bitcoin thanks to their recent run-ups.

After assessing your allocations, decide where to make adjustments. You don’t need to rebalance every account—what matters is the overall portfolio’s asset mix, which determines your risk and return profile. It’s usually most tax-efficient to adjust within a tax-deferred account such as an IRA or 401(k), where trades won’t trigger realized capital gains. For example, if you’re overweight on U.S. stocks and light on international stocks, you could sell U.S. stocks and buy an international-stock fund in your 401(k).

If you need to make changes in a taxable account, you can attempt to offset any realized capital gains by selling holdings with unrealized losses. That might be difficult, as the strong market environment has lifted nearly every type of asset over the past 12 months. Only a few Morningstar Categories (including India equity, real estate, consumer defensive, and health care) posted losses over the trailing 12-month period ended Oct. 30, 2025. The average long-term government-bond fund lost about 8% per year for the trailing five-year period as of the same date, so those could offer opportunities for harvesting losses.

Required minimum distributions can also be used in tandem with rebalancing. Account owners have flexibility in which assets to sell to meet RMDs. If you own several different traditional IRAs, you could take the full RMD amount from any of them. Selling off holdings that appreciated the most can bring the portfolio’s asset mix back in line with your original targets.

Another option is funneling new contributions into underweight asset classes. Depending on the size of additional investments, this approach might take time, but it’s better than not rebalancing at all. This might also appeal if you’ve built up capital gains you don’t want to realize.

Final Thoughts

Rebalancing is especially important in extremely volatile times. But even in a more gradual bull market like in recent years, it’s important for keeping a portfolio’s risk level in check, especially for investors as they approach retirement and start spending their portfolios.

___

Oasis will open temporary retail locations in London and Dublin in December to sell merch and showcase content from the band’s 2025 global tour, with both stores operating through December 21.

The London store opens December 4 at 44-46 Regent Street, under the Piccadilly Lights, while the Dublin location launches December 5 at Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre. The shops mark the conclusion of the Oasis Live ’25 tour and offer fans access to new and exclusive merch, a restocked adidas Originals range, vinyl and more.

The London location includes a dedicated room showing visual content from the tour, featuring performance highlights and fan content from the summer concerts. Visitors to the London store can book time slots for the content room online, although walk-in appointments are also accepted.

Both stores will offer product customization on select dates. London customers can personalize merch on December 6, 7, 13, 14, 20, and 21. Dublin’s customization service runs from December 5 through 7.

The stores will feature a fully restocked line of official tour merch including menswear, womenswear, children’s wear and accessories such as tees, hoodies, jackets, sweatshirts and more.

The locations will also carry restocked products from the band’s collaboration with Adidas Originals.

The stores will also launch new merch such as hats, flags, scarves, posters and commemorative tickets, as well as tour-edition colored vinyl versions of Oasis albums.

The London store will operate from 10 am to 9 pm Monday through Saturday, and 11am to 5pm on Sundays. Dublin’s hours will run from 10 am to 6 pm Monday through Friday, and 11am to 4pm on Sundays.

The temporary retail concept follows the band’s 2025 reunion tour, which marked their first performances together since splitting in 2009. The Gallagher brothers announced their reunion in August 2024.

Last year, the band named Warner Music Group’s merchandise and fan-experience division WMX as its official merchandise partner. The partnership included a “compelling” merchandise offering on and around Oasis’ stadium shows, which will include pop-up stores, fan experiences, exclusive brand collaborations and event merchandise.

Warner Music Group launched WMX in late 2021 and described it at the time as “a next-generation services division” to “connect artists with fans and amplify brands in creative, immersive, and engaging ways”.

In Q3, sales of Oasis merch led to a double-digit jump in WMG’s Artist services and expanded-rights revenue. Turnover surged 64.3% YoY at constant currency to $327 million.

Strong demand for the Oasis reunion concert prompted regulatory scrutiny last year, with the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority launching an investigation into Ticketmaster in September 2024 over some news reports that said ticket sales for the concert series  involved dynamic pricing, and saw large spikes in the prices of tickets.

Dynamic pricing adjusts ticket prices in real time based on demand, and has proven controversial among some concertgoers due to sudden spikes in prices.

In September, the CMA ruled that it had “not found evidence” that Ticketmaster used dynamic pricing in the on-sale of Oasis tickets.

“This means fans will know beforehand if there are multiple prices for the same type of ticket, and that more expensive ones will be released once the cheapest sell out,” the CMA said.

Music Business Worldwide

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.

This article is part of the FT Financial Literacy & Inclusion Campaign’s seasonal appeal. The appeal is supported by lead partner Experian, which is generously match-funding other donations.

It has become a rite of passage for every new generation of young adults to be labelled lazy and irresponsible by its elders, but Gen Z has probably had it worse than most. Accusations range from not making an effort at work to splurging on luxuries and a “Yolo” attitude to risky investments like cryptocurrencies and NFTs.

There are two important differences between Gen Z and those previous generations facing similar disdain. The first is that rather than pushing back on these characterisations, today’s 20-somethings have tended to embrace them, leaning into neologisms such as “quiet quitting”. The second is that new evidence suggests these behaviours are rational responses to worsening economic prospects: specifically, the increasing unattainability of home ownership.

In a pioneering study published last week, economists at the University of Chicago and Northwestern University used detailed data on the card transactions, wealth and attitudes of Americans to demonstrate that reduced work effort, increased leisure spending and investment in risky financial assets (including crypto) are all disproportionately common among young adults who face little to no realistic prospect of being able to afford a house. By contrast, Seung Hyeong Lee and Younggeun Yoo’s research finds that those for whom home ownership is a more realistic possibility in the medium term, or who have already attained it, take fewer risks and strive harder at work.

I have extended their analysis to the UK and find a similar picture. Young British renters who have little hope of cobbling together a deposit are much more likely to take financial risks — with online betting, for example — than their contemporaries who are on or within reach of the housing ladder.

Most importantly, Lee and Yoo use time series data and local house prices to show that the link between unaffordable housing and economic behaviour appears to be causal. Recent upticks in financial risk-taking, leisure spending and reduction in work effort respond to changing economic incentives. As housing affordability deteriorates, those who come to believe they are locked out of home ownership resort to a mixture of high-risk bets and what US economic commentator Kyla Scanlon calls “financial nihilism” — why strive and save when it won’t be enough to make it anyway? — while their better-placed counterparts tighten their belts.

The findings on effort at work are particularly notable. Gen Z is often characterised as lacking resilience in the workplace; many young employees have taken to social media to bemoan the pointlessness of the nine to five. The evidence suggests these changing beliefs and behaviours are grounded in economic reality as it evolves. It’s not that previous generations were more engaged in their work because jobs back then were thrilling, it’s that applying oneself at work used to be a means to an end. With the reward of owning your own home yanked out of reach, the whole thing feels futile.

The same conclusion follows from the increasing importance of parental help to climb the ladder. For most first-time buyers in the US, the UK and Australia, the biggest hurdle is not salary but down payment. Why stay late in the office to finish that project in the hope of a modest pay rise when you know you’ll end up needing a six-figure deposit that might take decades to build up regardless?

The results of these studies have important implications. First, they underscore the critical urgency of addressing the home ownership affordability crisis. The impact, as we can now see, is destabilising the wider economy and society, setting many young adults on a slippery financial path where mis-steps may prove unrecoverable.

FT financial literacy charity

Support the FT’s Financial Literacy and Inclusion Campaign (FT FLIC)

Second, they highlight the importance of providing young people with the financial literacy they need to navigate a new world where for many the only hope of success is to take big monetary risks. Today’s 20-somethings are much more likely to end up as life-long renters than their parents were. This means they will need more guidance than past generations on other means of wealth accumulation, as well as the skills and support to know that it’s not yet game over.

It’s all very well bemoaning the growing economic nihilism of younger generations — and the evidence bears it out — but they’re just playing the cards they have been dealt.

john.burn-murdoch@ft.com, @jburnmurdoch

What does this week’s UK Budget mean for your finances? Join a free webinar on Friday 28 November 1300-1400 GMT with FT journalists Claer Barrett, Stuart Kirk, Tej Parikh and special guest, tax expert Dan Neidle. Register now and put your questions to our panel.