How Your Personality Will Guide Your Investment Strategy

You may have heard that when it comes to money you are either a “spender” or a “saver.” So it should be no surprise that our personality impacts how we invest our money. But is that a good thing? Where should our personalities be dictating how we handle our investments?

 

When it comes to your investments, we advise against letting your emotions drive your decisions. The reason for this is because it’s easy to open up your monthly statement to see that the market has lost money and want to pull your investments out of fear. Or you may be doing well in the market and that success drives you to take ill-advised risks. While our personalities will impact our investment strategy, we want to avoid making fear-based or purely emotional decisions.

 

At 210 Financial, we typically see these three different personalities:

 

• The Dreamer: This personality type often has big dreams, but doesn’t know where to start with their investments and mostly wants it to be on autopilot. They know that they should have a plan, but don’t want to get bogged down in the details. They would rather spend their time dreaming of all the fun things they will get to do once they retire.
• The Risk Taker: This personality sees dips in the market as an opportunity. They tend to take big risks and like feeling the rush when it pays off! However, they have a tendency to risk it all and may jeopardize their long-term investment goals in the process.
• The Safety Net: This personality type likes their backup plan to have a backup plan. They save more than what they think they will need. However, these types can also be busy pinching pennies that they miss out on enjoying their success and blessing others.

 

As you can imagine, each of these personalities will handle their investments very differently! The Dreamer will try to stick to the plan, the Risk Taker will want more potentially lucrative investments, while the Safety Net will want to steer clear of anything uncertain. The good news is there is room for every personality type in investment!

 

The key to letting your personality shine is to set a financial goal for the future that fits your personality. That may be a quiet retirement spoiling grandkids, or taking worldwide adventures, or exploring new hobbies. The foundation for achieving those dreams is to develop an intentional plan today to make them a reality in the future.

 

When we build a plan for our clients, we examine a lot of different factors. The greatest pieces we look at are your income and where you want to go financially. As you build out your investment portfolio, there are areas that have some level of risk. The level of risk you are willing to take is heavily dictated by your personality.

 

Pro Tip: As a general rule, you should take 100 minus your age and the result is the percentage of your portfolio that can afford to carry risk.

 

Being a Risk Taker isn’t a bad thing, if you have enough income and secure investments to support it. And wanting a little bit more of a buffer “just in case” as a Safety Net personality is alright, as long as you have time for those investments to mature. Being The Dreamer is just fine too, as long as you have a good financial advisor taking care of the details for you.

 

Regardless of which personality type you are, it’s important to make sure your investment strategy is taking you where you want to go. If you are unsure that your strategy is doing that, we’d love for you to schedule a complimentary meeting, attend one of our local events, or give 210 Financial a call at 309.263.1333!

 

Content prepared by Austin Savage & Co.

 

Investing involves risk, including the potential loss of principal. Any references to [protection benefits, safety, security, lifetime income, etc] generally refer to fixed insurance products, never securities or investment products. Insurance and annuity product guarantees are backed by the financial strength and claims-paying ability of the issuing insurance company. Investment advisory services offered only by duly registered individuals through AE Wealth Management, LLC (AEWM). AEWM and 210 Financial are not affiliated companies. 1020994-8/21