Not a week goes by that I don’t hear somebody say: “I don’t really know what I’m worth. I have stopped looking at my statements.” I totally understand the urge to avoid unwelcome news. It’s part of being human.

But very soon this aversion stops being a quest for comfort and starts being self-destructive. By the way, in case you were wondering: I know that I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know.

If your investments affected only your own life, I could buy into the notion that only you will have to pay for burying your head in the sand as you refuse to find out the facts – and thus don’t have to face up to them.

But the chances are very high that other people are depending on your investments. Your family and your future heirs, for example. If they have entrusted part or all their financial well-being to you, refusing to look at the statements should be what’s known in some companies as “a firing offense.” In other words, do it once and you’re gone.

If you think I’m being too harsh, consider what you would do in these three circumstances:

•    You know your health has been lousy lately and you finally go to your doctor. She puts you through a battery of tests and gets the results back. Knowing these results are not likely to be pleasant, she neglects to look at them, much less tell you what they say. Do you forgive her or fire her?

•    You are on a Caribbean cruise, obviously heading into a severe storm, with no land in sight. Waves are washing over the decks; you and your fellow passengers are scared. Even though the cruise brochure said your captain and crew have decades of experience, somehow you discover that they have decided to reduce their stress levels by putting the ship on autopilot and leaving the bridge to play a game of poker. Do you forgive them or fire them?

•    You’re on board an airliner being tossed around by a storm including hail, quickly shifting winds and occasional lightning. There is no way around the storm. The pilot is distraught by emotional stress that he was not expecting. Instead of working with the plane’s instruments, radios and navigation aids, he covers his eyes and hopes things will work out somehow. What is your response: Forgive him or fire him?

In each case, there was an undeniable problem. The options were limited for the airline pilot, the doctor and the ship’s captain and crew. Yet in each case, others were counting on them to do the best they could. And by neglecting to even confront the facts, they let down the people counting on them for their futures.

Is anybody counting on you for his or her future? If so, do you really have the right to ignore the facts? Like the physician, your options may be limited and none of them may be very good. But if you aren’t willing to do what you can, you deserve to be fired, because ignoring the problems in your portfolio may cost you more in the future.

Only if you know what is happening with your investments last year can you ask why. Only then can you take whatever corrective action is necessary to take care of the people who are counting on you.

If you can’t stand your statements, the most likely reason is that your portfolio exposed you to too much risk. There’s a two-step fix for this. First, figure out (ideally with the help of your financial advisor) how much risk is appropriate for you. Second, get the right mix of equity funds and fixed-income funds in your portfolio.

We all like to think we are in control of our destinies. In fact, there are some things we can control and some we cannot. If you’re on that airplane, you want the pilot to understand the things that he can control, and you want him to do everything possible to exercise that control.

You are the pilot of what’s in your investment portfolio. Your statements are the readings on your instruments. Look at them, then do whatever is necessary. Your financial future depends on it. And if anybody else is depending on you to manage finances, don’t give them an obvious reason to fire you.

Tom Cock is a financial educator for Merriman .