Thursday, December 23, 2010

Personal Finance Portfolio should be dynamic


We often hear experts said
if you are young, you can take more risk, hence put your investment in equity.
then
if you are old, you should keep your capital in safer vehicle like bond etc.

But one important strategy they miss out is ... the dynamic of personal finance portfolio.

Says you are 25 years old, you will need a sum of money at 35 years old. Hence you can invest into equity. However, you must learn something about the equity market you are entering into. For example, you know that for every 10 years in your equity market, there will be a peak and a bottom. So perhaps by 3-4 years before your maturity date, ie. 31-32 years old. You should start considering withdrawing your equity investment and keep them in a money market or bond fund. This will preserve your capital and secure you from unexpected last minute change, ie. a sudden equity collapse.



for example;
age 25 : 90% equity, 10% bond
age 27 : 80% equity, 20% bond
age 32 : 40% equity, 60% bond
age 34 : 10% equity, 90% bond
Keeping a non dynamic portfolio expose you to risk the whole time. If bad luck hits you, you may lost all your 9 years of earning in the 10th year. So one must keep ones personal finance portfolio dynamic.


3 comments:

Azam Zaki said...

Im 33 i would prefer 70% of my investments are on equity.

ChampDog said...

I think this is called "asset allocation"?

Mt. said...

Azam, good choice. If you have a target age ie. earning XXX by age 50 then u may consider switching 50% to money market / bond when you are 45, etc.

champdog, its the "time factor" in asset allocation.