Keep Stock Market Risk In Perspective

As time goes by it is your personal perspective that matters.

Finding stunt people over the age of 55 is rare. Jackie Chan, who holds the Guinness record for most stunts by a living actor, turns 65 next year and amazingly still does some of his own stunts. But Jackie is the exception, rather than the rule.

A certain amount of fragility, after all, is one of the most evident, unwelcome signs of aging. We all get to the point where rolling out of bed in the morning becomes comparable to leaping tall buildings in a single bound, with even more aches and pains. One of Clint Eastwood’s body doubles summed it up best: “The older you get, the harder the ground gets.”

It’s ironic, though, that while time has a way of slowing many of us down physically and making us more cautious about what we do to our bodies, many older investors today are more cavalier with regards to their financial exposure to the stock market.

Earlier this year, MassMutual commissioned a survey of pre-retirees and retirees (1) and found a surprisingly high degree of risk tolerance among respondents. Conducted when the market was near all-time highs, the study found attitudes skewed towards wanting growth, a sureness about being somewhat to very knowledgeable about savings and investments, and a general commitment to staying focused on long-term goals even when the market drops.