Stages of Asset accumulation and asset decumulation

How we get into investments
Friends discussing our investments
Going out to a concert with friends. 🙂

Most people have little interest in personal finance and investments. It’s hard to believe that one day your money could earn more money than you earn yourself, so the idea of living out of your investments is in the same area of your brain as winning the lottery.

Then, as we get a job, we start seeing advertisements about investments about Retirement Savings Plans promoted by many banks and employers. Canadians see these savings plans as a way to reduce their tax bill.

Little by little we start getting bank statement and we discover that in fact, our investments are making money. Our investments go up and down in value but in the long run, we should see the balance of our account steadily increasing.

How we optimize our investments

It is at this period that many of us become interested in how to optimize our investments. Maybe we make the following discoveries:

  1. We discover that most actively managed funds underperform index funds.
  2. We discover that most fund companies have high management fees 2.5% to 3%, these high management fees rob us of a big chunk of our investments.
  3. We discover that it is better to own Index Funds and ETFs than individual stocks. The average return is the same but the risk is much lower.
  4. We also discover that Canada is only a small part of the global economy and that we will be missing out by staying invested in Canada and ignoring the rest of the world.
  5. We discover that bonds underperform stock and unless we have hit our wealth number, we should continue preferring stocks over bonds
  6. We discover that investing in gold does not produce higher returns nor more security. Instead, it adds a lot of risk to our portfolio.
  7. We discover that commission-based advisers have a conflict of interest. Would they recommend the best investment for us even if it didn’t pay them any commission? I doubt it.

The process of learning all these lessons is long and many times painful. It could take many years to discover that you are overpaying for actively managed funds. It could take years to diversify out of Canada. It could take years to stop believing in having gold as a fundamental part of your portfolio.

Winning the lottery and investments

Other investors get seduced into investments by the big technology companies. The Googles, Apples, Amazons of the world. They say: “If I would have invested $10,000 in Amazon 10 years ago, I would be a gazillionaire by now.” These investors might jump into a stock just based on the mass enthusiasm of the moment and many time they could win but also, the probabilities are high that they lose. “When to get in and when to get out” remains the most important question. After getting burnt a few times, these investors (like me) might look for more conservative/predictable approaches or might pull out of investments altogether.

In the long run, who are the winners?

The people I have seen succeeding over time, are the people who year after year make small improvements to their portfolio without increasing their risk. They find a better way to diversify, to cut unnecessary costs, to get rid of expensive commission. After 10, 20, 30 or 40 years, they see that their asses have grown substantially and now they have reached the second stage of their financial life, the decumulation stage.

The decumulation stage

At this stage of their life there are many questions which come up:

  1. Will I have enough to retire?
  2. Will I outlive my money?
  3. Will I have some money left over to leave to my heirs?
  4. How much can I safely withdraw each year?
  5. Will I invest my money any differently?
  6. What is the correct asset allocation?
  7. From which account should I withdraw first.
  8. What are the tax implications when I start withdrawing my money?
  9. How much should I rely on my Canadian/Quebec pension plan?

All these are difficult questions to answer. Investors find bits and pieces throughout the years. Many times the information is not complete or many times there is too much information.

Filling the information gap

There are two alternatives to fill the information gap.

  1. To educate yourself and buy books on how to approach asset decumulation
  2. To hire a fee-only financial expert for a second opinion. Please don’t consider talking at a commission-based adviser. There will always be a conflict of interest.

I will do my best to continue writing blog posts to narrow the gap between not enough information and too much information.

Related Posts

  1. Looking for Fat Profit Margins for your portfolio
  2. Socially Responsible Investing in Canada
  3. Make sure you get an unbiased financial adviser

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Comments

One response to “Stages of Asset accumulation and asset decumulation”

  1. […] We can finance our many activities (going to school, buying a house, etc) with loans or with the money we earn from our labor. When we accumulate some cash, we can invest it in the stock market. At one time in the future, we will withdraw that money to pay for our retirement. That’s the equivalent of paying ourselves some dividends. Read Stages of Asset accumulation and asset decumulation. […]