How do I determine my risk profile as a beginner investor and should I take on more risk in my earlier years?

I have shared this during last Saturday's panel.

The worst nightmare for investors who just got started is to take excessive risk, suffer a catastrophic loss, lost confidence and then never ever invest again.

(1) Start low risk, build confidence before gradually increasing portfolio risk

Investors who just got started should go low risk first. Be patient. Go through a market correction to feel the market fluctuations and better understand your emotional resilience towards market volatility (ie fluctuations). When you gain more confidence and experience, gradually increase your portfolio risk to accelerate your wealth accumulation.

(2) Invest broadly to diversify away risk

Do not be too narrowly focused, diversify broadly so that specific market developments like U.S.-China trade tensions will not cause a catastrophic loss.

Therefore, try to start off with a globally-diversified portfolio of stocks and bonds with a higher allocation to bonds. For example, you may consider starting with the AutoWealth Conservative Portfolio (60% global government bonds 40% global stocks) before switching to a portfolio with higher risk.

Check out our blog posts for other useful investment insights and concepts: https://www.autowealth.sg/blog/

You need to see if you are able to stomach the volatility of some investments. Will you panic sell if the price drop? You should definitely take more risk in your earlier year as you will have lesser dependants.