Investing for retirement
It’s important to balance the right amount of investment risks to achieve the right kinds of investment outcomes. At StatePlus we understand the financial needs of pre-retirees and retirees, which means that we manage money differently.
Balancing income certainty with returns
Our experience tells us that retirees have a greater need for certainty and security. As stewards of our clients’ retirement savings we invest in a way that’s highly aligned to these needs.
Investing in an appropriately cautious way needs to be balanced against the need to take some modest investment risk. This is because you should not be too conservative with your investments, otherwise inflation will erode the value of your retirement savings. And over time, this means you could run out of money prematurely. So it’s important to balance the right amount of investment risks to achieve the right kinds of investment outcomes.
Timing matters
If you’re retired and drawing down on your portfolio to fund your retirement, you’re highly vulnerable to a sharp and significant capital loss from a market correction. During market volatility, moderating the size of a capital drawdown, and the time to recover losses, will deliver a better portfolio outcome for someone who’s drawing from this portfolio. This is called sequencing risk.
What this means is that the ‘pattern’ of returns received by the investor has a crucial effect on the long-term outcome. Managing this risk and other types of risk is at the centre of our investment approach.
