With growth investing being so popular nowadays, I feel a bit embarrassed to be a conservative investor... Should I transition to growth investing if I can afford the risks?

Growth investing does not equate to higher long term returns: In fact when I started investing more than 8 years ago, value investing was the rage because of Warren Buffett, and also because value investing have stronger track record relative to growth investing.

Ultimately it is important to understand that over short periods of time, value/growth can outperform, but it is important to stay consistent in approach.

I think either index or smart beta investing with low cost, done consistently and passively, should work best over the long run, with greater peace of mind.

First time commenting here.. Recently I have been talking/sharing with some of my family members regarding investing, and I will like to share a golden rule that we like to tell ourselves - whichever decision you make on investing, most importantly is that you are able to sleep well at night!

If being conservative lets you sleep better, then by all means. No one is gonna fault you if your risk tolerance is different.

Theres no specific way in investing, i know most of us will say the younger you are, the more aggressive your portfolio should be. Who knows, you might have chosen a conservative portfolio to protect your wealth?

It is ok to miss out. no need be embarrassed. My parents did not know anything abt investing besides posb, CPF and fixed deposits. but they still managed to raise the family, put food on table and got a hdb 99 yrs lease. granted we cannot hav any luxuries in live, we took public transport instead of a toyota, family outing is grocery shopping and a meal at coffee shop instead of sentosa.

point is dun be a follower. the ethos of hard work and save up works as well. be clear of yr own goals, yr investing objectives.

personally, i started out very conservative too. started with fixed dep, then go to bonds, then ETFs, only after more than 10 yrs of investing, then i looked at more risky stuff like single stock picks.

but caution u against one thing: dun ever ever ever believe those ads which tells u investing or trading is easy. full of BS.