Do you really have to play big, to win big?
Achieving any goal in life usually involves starting with a plan. Investing is no different. One of the most important things to understand before you embark on an investment plan is the relationship between risk and return.
Some investors focus only on maximising returns without considering the risk taken to achieve those returns. Others are so concerned about losing money that they seek to avoid risk altogether. Yet the single, most important lesson investors can learn is that risk and return cannot be separated.
Common risk profiles
There are many investments available with different levels of risk to cater for investors of different risk profiles. As the investment timeframe is naturally linked to life stage, risk profiles can be generalised across age groups (that is, the younger you are, the longer investment timeframe you have and the more aggressive you can be). There is no ‘one size fits all’ approach to risk profiling among age groups.
There are a number of risk profiles, but for the sake of this article, we have outlined the three main profiles:
- Conservative
Conservative investors are generally prepared to accept lower returns with lower levels of risk in order to preserve capital. Conservative portfolios tend to be allocated predominantly to defensive assets, such as cash and fixed interest, with the remainder in growth assets.
For this reason, people in retirement (in the wealth protection phase of their investment journey) may adopt a more conservative attitude to risk. They have less time to ride out the ups and downs of the share market and tend to have less of their portfolios allocated to shares and other high risk asset classes.
- Balanced
Balanced investors generally have more of an equal mix of growth and defensive assets, and are comfortable with taking calculated risks to achieve good returns.
- Growth
Growth investors are more comfortable with a higher level of risk in order to achieve potentially higher returns. Their prime objective is to accumulate assets over the medium to long-term and capital security is secondary to potential wealth accumulation.
Investors in this category can therefore expect to have around 85 per cent of their portfolio allocated to growth assets, although still diversified across shares, property and alternative assets.
Whichever risk profile you may fit into, the most important consideration when it comes to investing is that your investment plan needs to be tailored to your individual needs and goals.
To learn more about how your risk profile will impact future savings, talk to your financial planner.
Source: Macquarie