July 28: BEST FROM THE BLOGOSPHERE

July 28, 2025

Acting your age – when it comes to your investment portfolio

Writing for BNN Bloomberg, Dale Jackson tells us that if “you’ve ever been told to act your age, the same advice applies to your investment portfolio.”

“Tweaking your nest egg properly as you get older will maximize consistent returns over the long term and lower risk as you near retirement,” he writes. “Determining what to hold, how much, and when, depends on who you are and how you want to retire. A qualified advisor can help but make sure investment fees don’t impede growth.”

When you are in your twenties, he writes, “time is on your side.” Since, he continues, “the biggest rewards come from the biggest risks… young people have more time for that to happen, or to recover if it doesn’t.”

Jackson cites T. Rowe Price, a major U.S. investment firm, as stating that “young investors should focus on the growth potential of stocks with at least a 90 per cent weighting on a diversified portfolio of equities.”

The younger folks, he adds, tend to have the most debt, an impediment to saving and investing. “The first priority should be to pay down debt starting with the highest interest rates or consolidating all debt into a low interest loan,” he suggests.

In your thirties, he writes, you should “continue chipping away at your debt,” and your portfolio should “push toward equities.”

“Kids and bills call for a mature strategy that includes investing in good companies that produce something with intrinsic value and grow earnings over time,” he writes.

Diversifying your equities “across sector and geographical lines” will hedge against risk, he continues, and at this point you should consider placing some of your investments in fixed income vehicles, such as guaranteed investment certificates (GICs) and “investment grade bonds.”

By your forties, the article continues, you are reaching your peak earnings years.

“T. Rowe Price recommends pulling back from equities in your forties and adding safer alternatives with less return potential. The investment management firm suggest up to twenty per cent of your portfolio be allocated to fixed income,” he notes.

When you are earning more, he adds, registered retirement savings plans “make more sense… refunds will be bigger because the contribution amount will have been taxed at a higher rate.”

By your fifties, Jackson notes, “you tend to have more to invest as basic necessities are paid for and the kids leave home.” The folks at T. Rowe Price suggest you should now be “15 to 30 per cent in fixed income.”

Finally, he concludes, once you are in “your sixties and beyond” you need to change your focus “180 degrees” from saving to spending. Since no paycheque will be coming in, he adds, “it is essential to have a reliable income source for day-to-day needs.”

“In your sixties T. Rowe Price recommends your portfolio weighting be pulled back to 45 per cent to 65 per cent equities and ten per cent cash,” he writes. “In your seventies and over it suggests 30 per cent to 50 per cent equities and 20 per cent cash.”

Diversification is something that members of the Saskatchewan Pension Plan can benefit from. SPP’s Balanced Fund is invested in Canadian, U.S. and Non-North American equities, real estate, infrastructure, bonds, mortgages, private debt and short-term investments. That way, your precious retirement savings “eggs” are not all in one investment basket.

Check out SPP today!

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BNN Bloomberg

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