Factors To Consider When Allocating Assets

While we all want to build wealth for ourselves and our families, in today’s world of rising living costs, it is critical to understand several factors before investing in a risky asset class like equities to achieve our life goals. It is critical that you recognize that not all assets move in the same direction at the same time. If equities are in a bear market, other asset classes such as gold, debt instruments, and real estate are unlikely to experience a downturn at the same time or vice versa.

So, how does one allocate his or her hard money wisely?

Here are some factors to consider when allocating your assets – hard-earned money wisely, as they provide a comprehensive picture.

Age

Your age is an important factor to consider when deciding how to allocate your assets. If you are a young investor, say between the ages of 20 and 30, you should consider allocating a large portion of your portfolio to risky assets such as equities. Being young gives you plenty of time and opportunities to recover from any potential drops in portfolio value. If you are between the ages of 30 and 55, you should aim to build a moderately risky portfolio and not put all of your savings into it. Aged investors approaching retirement (55 years and older) should, on the other hand, take a highly conservative approach to asset allocation and prefer debt or fixed income instruments to preserve principal.

Income

As you can see, the amount you invest is proportional to your income. Any increase in earnings will affect your discretionary income and, as a result, the amount of investment. If you work or are in service and receive a fixed monthly salary, you can allocate your savings systematically to both risk and safe instruments depending on your age. However, if you work in the business world, your profits and losses are not fixed.

While higher profits will encourage you to expand your business or invest in various financial instruments, a loss-making year will have a direct impact on your ability and capability to invest. As a result, you must allocate your assets with your future income growth potential in mind. When allocating assets, this is one of the factors to consider.

Goal proximity

When doing financial planning, your proximity to your financial goal is also important. If you are many years away from your financial goal, you should ideally allocate the majority of your assets to equity and less to fixed-income instruments. It is worth noting that allocating funds to different asset classes based on your proximity to goals aids not only in diversifying risks across asset classes but also in rebalancing your portfolio when you are closer (in terms of years) to achieving your financial goals.

Appetite for Risk

Your willingness to take risks, which is determined by your age, income, expenses, and proximity to your goal, will be an important factor in developing your financial plan. So, if your risk tolerance is high (aggressive), you can tilt your portfolio toward the equity asset class. Similarly, if you are a conservative risk taker, your portfolio should be skewed toward fixed income instruments, whereas if you are a moderate risk taker, your portfolio should be a mix of equity and debt.

Time

To get the most out of your time, you must first understand the time value of money. Having time simply means that you can take on more risks in your investment portfolio or earn higher returns on your investments because the economy’s dynamics remain volatile and may shift in favour of the investor.

A stock that is not currently valuable could become valuable in 5-6 years. As a result, it is critical to establish a time horizon for the investment, which is heavily dependent on how long an investor intends to invest.

Diversification

Diversification is without a doubt one of the most important strategies in the world of investing. Most investors, however, fail to do so correctly. Some welcome a slew of catastrophic errors by under-diversifying, while others make matters worse by over-diversifying. As a result, intelligently diversify your portfolio by incorporating factors such as international and dividend growth. Select assets that will provide you with higher values as well as subtle diversification.

Allocating assets is not a simple or one-time process. It necessitates extensive knowledge, valuable skills, a keen eye for detail, and periodic asset allocation reviews. Asset allocation protects the overall value of your portfolio from the failure of any single asset class. It is not a one-time process, and you must review your asset allocation regularly to ensure it is in line with your financial objectives.