It’s been a wild, often gloomy year for financial markets. But there’s still a little time left to bolster your investment portfolio and increase your chances for financial success in 2019.

Year-end moves involving your 401(k)s and brokerage accounts can help lower your tax bill, better position your portfolio for the new year, and lower your risk while boosting your future returns, personal finance pros say.

The stock market has run into trouble late this year -- with the Dow Jones industrial average closing down 507 more points on Monday to extend its 2018 loss to 4.6 percent. With worries over trade wars, rising interest rates and slowing growth expected to keep weighing on markets and cause volatility again next year, here are five last-minute ways to boost your bottom line in the waning days of 2018.

1. Dial back on aggressive stance

Even after lots of scary drops and swings in the Dow and other stock gauges this year, most Wall Street pros expect turbulence to continue in the new year as the record-long bull market in stocks nears its 10th birthday in March. That means it’s time to dial back your exposure to the “risky stuff” you own and prepare for another bumpy year in the market, says Lewis Altfest, CEO of Altfest Personal Wealth Management in New York.

“Make aggressive portfolios more conservative,” Altfest advises.

With uncertainties ranging from tariff disputes to the bond market signaling a potential downturn in the economy, Altfest fears that investors could get spooked, raising the possibility that negative “psychology could drive stocks down considerably lower” than investors anticipate.

To prepare for that scenario, Altfest recommends moving into areas of the stock market that are more defensive, and that currently offer more value due to recent weak performance and lower valuations.

So lighten up on expensive growth stocks, such as small-cap tech companies or the popular FAANG names, which includes Facebook and Netflix. Instead move some money into more conservative areas like cheaper value stocks and growth-and-income funds. They include stocks that have growth potential but also pay dividends.

2. Rebalance stock portion of holdings

Normally, investment advisers tell investors to keep their mix of assets in balance by regularly adjusting their portfolios to make sure they maintain their planned weighting of stocks and bonds.

However, Bill Hornbarger, chief investment officer at St. Louis-based Moneta Group, recommends that investors “rebalance” within their stock bucket so they can take advantage of cheaper stocks outside the U.S.

“Now’s the time to boost foreign stock holdings,” says Hornbarger. “They are out of favor and have been hit a lot harder than domestic U.S. stocks.”

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For example, the Standard & Poor's 500, a broad gauge of the U.S. stock market, is down 4.8 percent in 2018. In contrast, broad emerging market stock indexes are off 14 percent, while European shares are down nearly 12 percent and shares in Shanghai, China, are down more than 21 percent.

3. Cash in on cash

For a long time the winning investment theme on Wall Street was the T.I.N.A. trade, an acronym for “There Is No Alternative” to stocks. But after eight Federal Reserve interest rate hikes since December 2015, including three this year, the interest rate paid on cash is becoming increasingly competitive compared with other assets, including stocks, Hornbarger says.

A 3-month Treasury bill, which is a good proxy for cash, now yields 2.40 percent and savers can get yields as high as 2.25 percent on money market accounts, according to Bankrate.com. Both those yields top the 2.02 percent yield currently paid out by the S&P 500 stock index, according to Bloomberg. Those plump rates are also very competitive with, as well as less risky than, the 10-year Treasury note, which now yields 2.86 percent.

“For 10 years cash was something no one wanted to hold,” Hornbarger explains. “But now cash is a viable investment, especially for nervous investors that want to protect stock market gains from the last 10 years.”

4. Save on taxes while saving for kid’s college

Parents that have 529 plans set up to help fund their kid’s education, should check with their state to see if they can get a tax break for money invested in their home state’s education savings plan, recommends certified financial planner Marguerita Cheng, CEO of Blue Ocean Global Wealth in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

“I encourage people to do that to see if they are eligible to receive a tax reduction,” Cheng says.

Here’s how it works, using the state of Indiana as an example. Tax payers in that state that contribute to any of its CollegeChoice 529 savings plans are eligible for a 20 percent state income tax credit of up to $1,000 each year on their contributions. That means parents who haven’t yet contributed up to $5,000 in the plan should consider doing so before the end of the year to benefit from the full tax credit available to them.

5. Sell losing stocks to lower IRS bill

Did you jump into the market just as it was cresting in late September, and as a result are sitting on some losses? If so, now is the time to dump losers or underperforming stocks, says Hornbarger.

Why? The tax code allows you to apply up to $3,000 a year in capital losses to reduce ordinary income, which is taxed at the same rate as short-term capital gains, according to Fidelity Investments.

Investors can not only use this tax-loss selling strategy to offset income on their tax return, it’s also a good way to make a portfolio stronger by deploying the cash in a way to strengthen your portfolio, says Hornbarger.

“Use the tax-loss selling to get into things you think will do better,” he says.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 5 ways to boost your portfolio before 2019 even as the Dow tumbles