Presented by Trevor Kurth, CFP®
There’s a degree of risk in any financial investment. There are no sure winners and no sure losers, either. How comfortable you are with the latter statement may give you a clue as to your risk tolerance. You can think of risk tolerance not only as how much you are willing to lose on your investments but rather how much uncertainty you can live with from day to day.
Are you the type to sit and watching to stock ticker pass by all day? If so, does it fill you with dread or excitement? These are the kinds of questions you should be asking yourself. The answers will, in turn, help you pick out an investment portfolio that’s right for you.
1. A Personality Test
The individual identity component of risk tolerance assessment shouldn’t be ignored. Some of your risk tolerance can be measured, meaning that the amount of risk you can tolerate is based on factors like your age or your income. However, you may simply dislike making risky investments. That’s okay. You should be comfortable with spending (or not) your money the way you like.
2. What are Your Financial Goals?
Do you save money to accumulate wealth or are you looking for ways to retire early? If your only goal is to have a nice pile of money to retire on when you’re 70, slow and steady is your investment pace. You’re looking to have a steady accumulation over time that will be just enough for a happy retirement. If you want to go out while you’re relatively young, you’re looking for investments that are a high risk/reward ratio. You don’t mind some volatility if it can get you to the finish line faster.
These retirement-focused goals aren’t the only goals that can impact your investment strategy. You may be saving for a house or considering buying a business.
3. How Much Time Do You Need?
If you’re relatively young, you have plenty of time to ride out the peaks and valleys of the economy. You can tolerate a little more risk by design. If you have a goal you need to meet quickly (buying a home) or you are nearing retirement age, you may want to think more conservatively so that you don’t lose too much money.
4. Your Wealth and Income
If you have $5 million to invest, you can take more chances than you should if you have $50,000. That’s fairly straightforward. You may also consider additional factors, such as the amount of debt you’re carrying, or whether your personal ecosystem (job, family, assets, etc.) is strong and stable.
5. Get Good Advice
Even after you’ve asked yourself the tough questions, you may still want to talk about risk tolerance and assessment with an experienced financial advisor. Working with a financial advisor can reveal clues about your risk tolerance and help to map out a strategy. You may find that you are not as risk averse or risk tolerant as you thought. This process allows you learn about yourself and make better decisions regarding your future.
You can prepare yourself for the discussion by looking at one of the many online questionnaires that can help you understand your own risk tolerance. At Fischer Wealth Management, we use Riskalyze as a to aid in the risk discovery process. If you're curious about your risk tolerance and want to find your risk number, you can access the Riskalyze Questionnaire here: