Aggressive, moderate & conservative. Those three are the typology of an investor’s attitude towards the risks of investing. We need to understand how’s our attitude to risk when investing, as it gives us guidance in forming the best combination of investment products that suit to our own appetite to risks. Some people tend to avoid risk, some are thrill-risk seeker, some are somewhere in between; and there is nothing wrong being one of the typology, as everybody has his/her own unique appetite to risks.
How do we know which one we are?
I am A CONSERVATIVE ! Where should I put my money? Finding investment portfolio that suits
Here are some pointers.
Birth order. The firstborn child typically can be a conservative or can be an aggressive investor. Firstborn being aggressive usually is a calculated risk-taker type of investor. The middle child is usually more aggressive than the firstborn. Last, the youngest child in majority is an aggressive or even super-aggressive.
Occupation. An aggressive (calculated risktaker) person loves jobs that needs planning, preparation, and time limited project based works; examples are a sales, a contractor, a lawyer, a trainer, a businessman, or a chief of finance. Person with moderate risk attitude usually works as a specialist with general knowledge in other subjects; examples are a consultant, an athlete, or a journalist. Person who is conservative typically have career in a very specific area which need a special education as well; examples are a doctor, a teacher/lecturer, or an artist.
Income. Person whose income is from doing trade, is based on commission or is not fixed usually an aggressive person. A consultant or a project based contractor typically are an aggressive calculated risk taker. Those whose double income
or have salary is made of fixed and variable portion, usually have moderate appetite on risk. Person whose income from the salary only, is typically a conservative one.
Hobby. An aggressive and calculated risk taker usually enjoys high-risk and outdoor activities like mountaineering, wall climbing, paragliding, gliding, free fall, hunting, etc. Moderate person typically loves group sports like football, basketball, volley ball. The conservative usually loves individual activities or sports like swimming, running, fitness, reading, watching movies, or art.
Age. The younger you are, the more aggressive. The older you are, you are tend to be more conservative. One of the hints, if you are between 25-to-45 you can be aggressive. Being in age between 40-to-55 you can go moderate. More than 55 years old, generally is better to go conservative when investing. Now we have some idea to which typology we are likely fallen into. Now we know what is our own appetite to risks.
So What?
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Let’s do a self-check on our current savings or investments, in particular to look at the portion of each investment products we own, that in a financial term it is called as “our own investment portfolio”.
As we do a self-check to our current investment portfolio, we would list down all of our investments, classify them into the three classes (high-risk, medium-risk, low-risk products), and make a valuation on each of the investment product.
Investment products can be classified into three: high-risk products, medium-risk products and lowrisk investment products. Examples of high-risk investment products are: stocks, equity mutual fund, corporate bonds. Example of medium-risk investment products are: corporate bonds, gold bar, balanced mutual fund, fixed income mutual fund. Example of low-risk investment products are: government bonds, bank savings, time deposits, money market mutual fund, gold bar, property.
By now, we should know what is the total value of our investments, and also know the total sum of our investments which are classified as high-risk, medium-risk, and low-risk. The next question we should address: is my current investment composition or portfolio suit to my current riskappetite? Fortunately, there is a general guideline on how the composition of each investment class should look like, to suit the risk-appetite of an investor. Let’s look at the following pie charts.
What investment products that we currently own?
aggressive
moderate
conservative
Low Risk, 10%
High Risk, 10% High Risk, 30%
Low Risk, 30%
Medium Risk, 15%
High Risk, 75%
Low Risk, 60%
Medium Risk, 30%
Medium Risk, 40%
Pie Chart: Investment Portfolio Guideline Source: Cikaldana Financial Advisory
The three pie charts describe a composition of each investment product class within a total investment of an investor. We can use those pie charts as a guideline in judging our current investment portfolio and further conducting a portfolio balancing to the investments accordingly.
would consist of high-risk investment products in majority. A moderate investment portfolio typically would show a balance mix of investment product class.
A ‘conservative’ investment portfolio would consist a majority portion of low-risk investment products class. In the guideline pie chart, the total value of investment which classified as low-risk would be 60% of the total investment, which may be comprised of bank savings, time deposits, money market mutual fund, gold bar, and a property. A 30% of the investment would classified as mediumrisk investment product class and the remaining 10% would be high-risk investment products.
Let’s assume that we currently have a total savings and investments in total value of about one point two billion rupiah (Rp1,200,000,000). How the savings and investments products would be distributed?
Accordingly, an aggressive investment portfolio
How do those pie-charts work?
Let’s look at the table on the next page. The table describes the composition of each investment product class within a total investment held by the investor, according to the portfolio guideline pie charts and in term of monetary value (in this case Rupiah).
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Table: Example of Investment Portfolio 1.2 BIDR
Approximate Composition (in Rupiah) Total High Risk Investment Products
Total Medium Risk Investment Products
Total Low Risk Investment Products
aggressive portfolio
900,000,000
180,000,000
120,000,000
moderate portfolio
360,000,000
480,000,000
360,000,000
conservative portfolio
120,000,000
360,000,000
720,000,000
Source: Cikaldana Financial Advisory
Under a ‘conservative investment portfolio’, the total sum value of our investments which are classified as ‘low-risk’ investment would be about 720 million rupiah. This amount of ‘low-risk’ investment may be comprised of bank savings, time deposits, some money market mutual fund, and some gold bars.
All in all … This portfolio guideline should be taken flexibly in contrast of being a rigid rules of investment composition. Investment portfolio is dynamic in contrast of being static.
Besides the ‘low-risk’ investments, we would also hold several high-performing corporate bonds, some balanced and fixed-income mutual fund, that are classified as ‘medium-risk’ investment products in total value of around 360 million rupiah. In addition, we would also keep several ‘high-risk’ investment products like stocks and equity mutual funds in total value of about 120 million rupiah.
The graphic below illustrates an example of changes in a person’s investment portfolio over the time (age). Person’s appetite to risk changes over time. As dynamic as one’s appetite to risk, and so does investment portfolio. Investment portfolio is also a resultant of combined financial goals. A regular (at least, an annual) portfolio review and rebalancing would be recommended in an effort for an optimized (if not maximized) investment.
Accordingly, the story would go similarly for the ‘moderate’ and ‘aggressive’ investment portfolio. The difference would be on the numbers.
High-Risk Investment
Medium-Risk Investment
Low-Risk Investment
100% 80% 60% 40% 20% 0% 25
30
35
40
45
50
55
60
65
70
Graphic: The Dynamic of Investment Portfolio over Ages Source: Cikaldana Financial Advisory
By Iswin Hudiarto The writer is Principal Financial Planner and Director of Cikaldana Financial Advisory.
PT Cikaldana Korpora Sovereign Plaza 21st Floor, Jl. TB Simatupang Kav.36, Jakarta 12430 P: +62 21 2939 8727 F: +62 21 2939 8898 www.cikaldana.com E-mail: contact@cikaldana.com
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