Your browser does not support JavaScript! Pls enable JavaScript and try again.
08 Jun 2022

Wealth creation and wealth protection: Why investors need to successfully tackle both challenges

When it comes to being financially prudent, it is vital to have a holistic approach and implement a strategy for the long-term. Starting your investing journey early, being disciplined over a span of several decades and taking an appropriate level of risk are important steps to growing your wealth and staying ahead of inflation.

However, while wealth creation is important, it is just a part of a good investment plan. The other challenge many investors may also struggle with is wealth protection. In fact, according to the AIA Singapore's Affluence Barometer 2019, 63% of the affluent in Singapore are not confident about their ability to create wealth, with many citing uncertainties caused by global market volatility and geopolitical climate1.

As an investor, you may wish to ensure that both these areas are adequately covered when you build your retirement portfolio. While you may want to grow your wealth over time, you may also need to effectively manage your investment risks to ensure that your portfolio returns do not get cancelled out by external factors such as ever-changing market conditions or unforeseen personal circumstances, such as accidents, illnesses or even a death in the family, which could affect your investment portfolio.

Are you saving too much or too little?

In order to be a successful investor, you first need to have the financial discipline to be a fervent saver. It’s only when you have surpluses (i.e. you earn more than you spend) in your savings account that you may be able embark on investing to earn higher returns for the future.

However, one question you may have is determining how much you should be investing.

On the one hand, you do not want to be too conservative with your savings, since there is an opportunity cost to holding cash. At the same time, you do not want to invest your entire savings at once, as that would leave you without emergency savings to tide through unexpected situations in life.

You may also wish to invest more of your savings but are unsure how to invest or lack the confidence to deploy a large sum of money in the markets on your own. This is especially relevant if you are just starting out in your investment journey or do not have the time to research and track your investment growth.

Another factor that needs to be considered is your appetite for risk. If you invest too much, you may be taking on a higher level of risk in your investment portfolio than you may be comfortable with. If you invest too little, you run the risk of having your spending power eroded by inflation over time.

Do you have an adequate wealth protection strategy?

Wealth can be earned as well as lost. This is why it’s important to protect your investment portfolio even while trying to grow it. There are two risks that you face when you make an investment.

The first is the investment risk that you will be exposed to. You could invest in the wrong company, sector or even asset class. You could even invest in the right assets but at the wrong time. The value of your investment goes down or fails to achieve the desired growth that you want and you fail to achieve your investment objectives.

There may be a question of whether it is the wrong time or even the right time to invest. While no one can predict when is the best time to invest, you need to ensure you can hold your investments during such crises, to gain from any subsequent market recovery.

The other risk when it comes to investing would be external factors having an adverse impact on your life. Accidents, medical conditions and death can derail even the best investment plans. For example, you may have put in place a long-term plan to build a retirement nest egg by making regular investments over the next two to three decades. An unforeseeable medical emergency which results in you not being able to work for a few years can throw your plans off-course, even having adverse consequences for your and your family’s standard of living. This is why wealth protection planning also forms an important part of your wealth creation plan.

Speak to your Insurance Specialist or Relationship Manager to explore insurance options here.

1 This finding is based on a sample size of 383 affluent individuals in Singapore. The term “affluent individual” is defined as an individual who has an annual personal income of above S$120,000 or an annual household income of above S$150,000.

Source: AIA Singapore Private Limited

Disclaimer

Contents on this webpage are for general information only, and should not be relied upon as advice. The information provided does not have regard to any individual’s investment objectives, financial situation or particular needs. This webpage and its contents are not an offer nor solicitation to purchase, nor endorsement or recommendation of, any products or services by Citibank Singapore Limited, its related entities and their respective directors, agents and employees (together "Citigroup").

This webpage and its contents do not constitute the distribution of any information or the making of any offer or solicitation by anyone in any jurisdiction in which such distribution, offer or solicitation is not authorised or to any person to whom it is unlawful to distribute such information or make any offer or solicitation.

Contents on this webpage are prepared by AIA Singapore Private Limited. Citigroup has not independently verified such contents, and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy, truth, adequacy, completeness, fitness for purpose, non-infringement of third party rights or continued applicability of such contents.

Citigroup shall not be liable for any complaint, suit, action, claim, expense, loss or damages directly or indirectly arising out of or in connection with any person’s reliance on, or acting upon, or use of, any contents on this webpage.

This advertisement has not been reviewed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.