The Significance of Risk Tolerance in Investment Decisions

Your risk tolerance is a key factor in your strategy for growing your wealth without daily anxiety. If you're uncomfortable with the possibility of temporary losses in your initial investment, you may choose safer investments with lower returns. Investments that offer higher returns often come with greater volatility and potential losses.

By understanding your risk tolerance, you can develop an investment strategy that allows you to manage concerns about volatility while pursuing the potential for higher returns.

Understanding Your Financial Goals

Before considering risk, it's important to clarify your financial goals. For most investors, retirement is a primary goal. In addition, you may want to save for your child's education or accumulate funds for a down payment on a new home.

While financial goals vary from person to person, the process of achieving them begins with similar steps. Understand the specifics of each goal: What are the costs involved? When do you expect to need the funds?

Once you have a clear picture of your goals, you can calculate the annual rate of return needed to achieve them.

The Risk Tolerance Range

Your risk tolerance ranges from conservative to aggressive, with each position on the spectrum having its own implications:

Conservative: You value the preservation of your capital over potential investment gains.

Moderately conservative: You want to preserve your principal, but you're open to taking some risk in pursuit of investment gains.

Moderate: You seek a balance between risk and reward in your investment approach.

Moderately aggressive: Longer-term investment returns are your priority, and you're willing to take more risks to achieve them.

Aggressive: Your primary goal is to maximize investment returns, and you're willing to accept significant volatility along the way.

Assessing Your Risk Tolerance

To determine where you fall on the risk tolerance spectrum, consider the following questions:

• What is your investment time horizon?
• Do financial decisions cause you anxiety?
• Are you willing to accept greater risk for the potential of greater reward?
• How would you react to a significant loss in the value of your investments?
• Would you feel compelled to sell your positions in the event of a severe market downturn?
• Can you maintain the discipline to stick to your investment strategy during a bear market?

Additional factors such as age, income, occupation, and family status also influence your risk tolerance.

Risk Tolerance and Diversification

When assessing risk tolerance, it's important to distinguish between short-term and long-term goals. Short-term expenses can be handled differently than investments for retirement or other long-term goals. For short-term investments, it's okay to liquidate assets to cover expenses because they may not have enough time to recover from market downturns. For longer-term investments, choose assets you're comfortable holding and diversify across asset classes such as stocks, bonds, real estate and commodities to match your risk tolerance.

Aligning Risk Tolerance with Risk Capacity

It is important to assess your risk tolerance alongside your risk capacity to ensure that the two are in balance.

For example, if you're in your twenties and saving for retirement, you have significant risk capacity. With potentially 45 or 50 years until retirement, you can afford to take an aggressive investment approach that can withstand potential volatility. However, your risk tolerance may not be aligned; you may be apprehensive about taking on such risks.

The Bottom Line

In summary, risk tolerance refers to your ability and willingness to tolerate fluctuations in the value of your investments. Understanding your risk tolerance can help you select investments that meet your financial goals without causing undue stress. Understanding your risk tolerance will help you construct a portfolio that balances protection against significant losses with the growth potential that is essential to achieving your goals.