When it comes to investing, understanding your risk tolerance is key. Your risk tolerance is the amount of risk you’re comfortable taking with your investments. It’s important to make sure your investments are in line with your risk tolerance throughout different life stages. Let’s break down why and how this works.
What is Risk Tolerance?
Your risk tolerance determines the type and mixture of investments you should choose when building a portfolio. In general, lower-risk investments such as certificates of deposit or bonds are more appropriate for conservative investors, while higher-risk investments such as growth stocks are better suited for aggressive investors. This is, of course, an over-simplification because there are also many stages in between these two extremes. Knowing which type of investor you are will help you determine which types of investments you should be making and how much of each asset class should be included in your portfolio.
Changes in Risk Tolerance Over Time
Your risk tolerance may change over time due to a variety of factors, including volatile markets, nearing retirement, beginning retirement, or other life changes. For example, if you’re nearing retirement age or have recently retired and have no regular income coming in from a job, then it’s likely that your risk profile has changed significantly because now you have to rely mostly on withdrawals from investment accounts to cover basic living expenses. This means that higher-risk investments may not be suitable for someone in this situation, since they could potentially result in large losses at a time when those losses can’t easily be replaced by additional income from employment. On the other hand, if markets become volatile and there is significant downside pressure on stock prices, then it might make sense for investors to become more aggressive, moving some money into higher risk (but potentially higher reward) investments in order to take advantage of the opportunity to “buy on sale.”
Importance of Staying Within Your Risk Tolerance
It’s important to stay within your risk tolerance so that any gains or losses associated with an investment do not exceed what you’re comfortable with financially or mentally. If an investment doesn’t align with your goals or puts too much stress on you because it’s too risky, then there is a high probability of making emotionally driven decisions at the wrong time. Having a good understanding of your own personal level of risk tolerance will help ensure that any decisions regarding portfolio construction are based on sound financial principles rather than emotion or fear which can lead to poor decision making and potentially significant losses over time.
Understanding one’s own individual level of risk tolerance is essential for successful investing strategies over various life stages and market conditions. It’s important to understand why staying within one’s own threshold for risk comfort is so important; doing so will ensure that any decisions made regarding portfolio construction are based on sound financial principles rather than emotion or fear which can lead to poor decision making and long-term damage if left unchecked. Making sure that your investments match up with what level of risk tolerance is appropriate given any particular life stage or market condition will go a long way towards ensuring success over the long term! Click here to Check your Risk Tolerance.