KTRH Moneyman Pat Shinn, a certified financial planner with Heritage Asset Advisors, says just as everyone has a personality type, they also have a savings personality type, dependent on how much risk they are comfortable with. And that comfort level isn’t determined by age.
“Some young people who are very uncomfortable with risk; they don’t like the ups and downs. If they are invested too aggressively they will ultimately end up panicking and sell out at the worst possible time,” Shinn counsels. They may see a news story about turmoil in the market and make emotional decisions not based on reason. By the same token, Shinn says, some older people, even into their 80’s and 90’s, enjoy the risk and are uncharacteristically very non-conservative in their choices.
“We want to avoid telling people if you’re between age such and such you should have a certain amount of money and we don’t believe that. We know for a fat it doesn’t work,” Shinn adds.
We are, Shinn suggests, ultimately emotionally-driven more than reasonably driven.
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