How to plan Asset allocations for various life stages

 

As the saying goes: "Money is earned, not saved." It actually means that we need to earn AND manage money in order to grow it. Only when we have a clear financial management goal, can we better understand what kind of investment tools we will need, making financial planning more effective.

But before that, we should have a clear understanding of our financial values ​​in order to better "prescribe the right medicine." In a broad picture, people born after 1980 can be divided into the following 6 categories according to their financial values:

①  1. Diligent Group: Choose to struggle first and then enjoy. Actively save, know how to increase income and reduce expenditure, live within their means, can quickly accumulate funds, and use funds for investment and financial management.

②  2. Enjoy First Group: Enjoy first and then struggle, focus on the immediate enjoyment of life, have strong purchasing power and consumption power, spend as much as they earn, and basically have no savings.

③  3. The hard-working Group: In the initial stage, the main goal is to purchase real estate. In addition to the long-term pressure of housing loans, they also need to prepare for their children's education expenses.

④  4. Dink Group: Pay attention to personal development, do not have children after marriage, and prefer to live in the two-person world. It should be noted that when one of the parties has an accident or financial risk, it is easy to trigger a marital crisis.

⑤  5. Non-married Group: Although there is no huge financial demand-buying real estate or preparing children's education funds, one should understand the indisputable fact that one will eventually grow old.

⑥  6. NEET (Not in Employment, Education or Training) Group: One is mostly at home, does not start a business or work, and the living expenses are all provided by the parents. In addition to consuming social resources, it is also easy to cause adverse effects on society.

Specifically, the life cycle of a family can be roughly divided into four stages: the "formation period" from being single to the establishment of a family; the "growth period" when children grow up; the "maturity period" when the family and career develop together; and from retirement to the end-of-life "ageing period".

The following focuses on the three stages of "formation period", "growth period" and "maturity period", and provide corresponding asset allocation suggestions. I hope it will be helpful to everyone.

Formation period: quickly accumulate wealth

Our life is not long nor short, the earlier you plan for financial management, the more wealth you can accumulate. We can start with the following 4 basic financial management steps:

1. Keeping track of income and expenditure: It allows you to understand your own consumption behaviors and habits, and can better control your future economic budget by sorting out whether each item of living expenses is reasonable.

2. Income: work hard and make money, set up a dedicated financial account for investment, and choose suitable financial products for investment.

3. Expenditure: living within your means and controlling shopping desires, such as coming up a shopping list before shopping and purchasing strictly in accordance to the list.

4. Value-addition: From the perspective of long-term interests, we will need to understand and improve professional ability. For example, to obtain various skills certificates to prepare for future promotion.

From the perspective of asset allocation:

Investment advisors used to recommend a rule of thumb where the investor will subtract their age from 100 to know the allocation for stocks in their portfolio. However due to the higher life expectancy, recommended formulae is to subtract your age from 110 or 120 to be more aggressive in stocks. The rest can be in less risky financial products such as bonds, ETFs, etc.

Growth period: emphasis on asset preservation and appreciation

The age of 30 to 50 is a period of heavy responsibility for life. This age needs to bear multiple financial pressures. Therefore, the proportion of investment in core assets can be adjusted appropriately.

From the perspective of asset allocation, planning can be made from the following four aspects:

1. Reserve a family fund: generally 6-12 months of family living expenses, in case of emergency.

2. Repay various types of loans: such as car loans, housing loans and general consumer loans.

3. Prepare children's education funds: to support children from kindergarten to university, the tuition and miscellaneous fees and various living expenses during this period will require a lot of money.

4. Retirement planning: The sooner you prepare for retirement planning, the less economic pressure you will bear.

Maturity period: Stay conservative and avoid risks

During the period from the age of 50 to critical retirement, our funds should be invested in more conservative or prudent financial products.

From the perspective of asset allocation, there is basically no income from work in the elderly after retirement, and they can only rely on CPF to pay for various expenses that may be faced, including necessary expenses for maintaining life, medical or nursing expenses, etc.

At this stage, good health is as important as wealth. Therefore, investment and financial management should prioritize "stability" and choose low-risk financial products, focusing on fixed income.

Do a good job in investment and financial management to achieve financial freedom

Financial management is lifetime homework. The greatest achievement of investment guru Warren Buffett when conducting financial management in stages, he always stays sober, adheres to medium and long-term investments, and follows the principle of asset allocation that is, investing in familiar ones. Only invest in what you are familiar with.

Read also:

The eight golden periods of financial management in life, have you missed them?

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