Running a smart financial race
JMMB’S MANAGER, client partnership, at the Portmore Branch, Andrew O’Connor, who co-hosted the event, shared that investors, during the mid-career years when individuals typically have greater earning power, should take the opportunity to strengthen their investment portfolio by including high interest-earning assets such as stocks, bonds, unit trusts, and new ventures since they typically outperform market rates, depreciation, and inflation.
He emphasised that the opponents in the race include inflation, depreciation and market interest rates.
“This period, which was likened to the ‘top speed’ of the race gives investors the opportunity to make up any ground that could have been lost earlier in one’s financial race, while also building momentum that will help later on in the financial race and providing investors with sufficient time to recover from any financial downturns,” O’Connor said.
In building your investment portfolio, JMMB’s financial expert noted that each investor would have to consider his or her risk tolerance, that is, the ability and willingness to withstand variability in the value of one’s investments over time.
REDUCE MOMENTUM
As persons approach retirement age, Sinclair-Doyley advised that individuals should seek to “reduce their momentum” by instead relying on income-generating assets amassed in the earlier phase of the financial race. Some of these assets would include rental income and business ventures.
The income from these sources will allow persons the comfort of increasing their wealth while reducing the proportion of highrisk investments, for example, stocks. Individuals a few years away from retirement were also encouraged to steadily manage their debt, eliminating it where possible, ahead of retirement, while protecting their assets accumulated over time from financial mishaps, thereby comfortably taking a ‘victory lap’ towards retirement.
JMMB Group has positioned itself as a financial life-goals centre and aims to partner with individuals during their financial journey and provide practical solutions to help people achieve their goals. During the forum, the presenters highlighted numerous investment, loan, and insurance solutions critical to support goal achievement, including unit trusts and packaged financial solutions such as the JMMB Graduate.
The event is in line with JMMB Group’s financial partnership approach and thrust towards financial education. It also seeks to empower and educate the investing public and other Jamaicans.