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Christine Benz is Morningstar director of personal finance.

Scheduled. Streamlined. Surgical.

Those adjectives describe to a "T" how to check up on your portfolio.

First, you want to put your reviews on a regular schedule - quarterly, semi-annual, or even annual reviews are plenty. If you're checking up on a more frequent, ad hoc basis, you risk getting buffeted by news flow and performance-chasing, dumping perfectly good holdings due to short-term weakness and piling into those that appear to have the hot hand. That's a recipe for poor investment results.

You'll also want to keep your portfolio review streamlined and surgical, for a couple of key reasons. First, by focusing on a few big-picture factors as you conduct your review - your asset allocation, the fundamental attributes of your holdings, and whether you're on track to meet your financial goals - you're not likely to get bogged down in less-important details, such as which of your funds has the most invested in Japan or what securities performed best over the past week or month. Keeping your portfolio review focused has another key benefit. If it's not an overwrought chore that sucks up hours of your time, you're more likely to get it done. And, of course, you surely have better things to do with your time.

Below are five key steps to undertaking your quarterly review. The lynchpin of this monitoring session is a well-articulated Investment Policy Statement that spells out how often you'll check up on your holdings and what you'll be looking for when you do. If you don't have such a policy statement, consider building one before undertaking your review.

Step 1: See how you're progressing toward your goals.

Are you on track to meet your goals, whether it's retirement, college funding, or a shorter-term goal such as amassing a home down payment? For many of you - especially those saving for goals that are far into the future - the answer may be "I have no idea". That's a problem, because by the time you find out that you'll come up short, it may be too late to address the problem spots by increasing your contribution rate or shifting your asset mix. Instead, your only option will be to defer or alter your goal. If you haven't run the numbers on your investment programme recently - using either a general savings calculator or a retirement-specific one - make that the first step in your quarterly checkup. If things are looking good, resolve to keep on keepin' on. If it looks like you'll come up short, assess what changes you can make to get on track, including bumping up your savings rate or nudging your equity exposure upward to allow for greater long-term growth potential.

Step 2: Check up on your asset mix.

Next, conduct a quick review of your portfolio's overall positioning. Start by assessing its allocations to domestic and foreign stocks, bonds, and cash.