Choosing Your Index Investing Fund

You should educate yourself about different indexes available before you choose a specific fund. If you’re interested in blue chip stocks, you should invest in a fund based on Dow Jones Industrial Average; this index tracks thirty crucial companies heavy in blue chips. If you want a more diversified portfolio that is based on a realistic picture of American stock market, you should look for a fund based on S&P 500.

If you’ve been looking overseas at advances made there, you should look for an index investing fund based in a promising foreign economy. South Korea is emerging as a world leader in health technology, for instance, as well as a prime area for outsourcing by American companies.

As in any mutual fund, you should look to long term rather than short. Index investing funds may be volatile in short term, but historically they’ve always gone up. Some analysts are predicting a tripling of stock value by 2020, in fact; this may be overly optimistic, but long term gains will be offset if you overcompensate for losses and sell your holdings early. Experts generally recommend that you leave your mutual funds and index investing funds alone most of time, making adjustments on an annual or semiannual basis.

So, to review, two out of five moved their assessments of their Overall Risk Inclination upward. The same proportion kept theirs same and one in five moved theirs downward.

More Influential Risk Inclinations - I have long suspected that we allow our comfort level with certain kinds of risks to disproportionately influence our perception of our Overall Risk Inclination. One of goals of this survey is to look for correlation between first assessment of Overall Risk Inclination and risk inclination in various specific areas that would provide evidence of such disproportionate influence.

Based on countless conversations, I have sensed that many people allow their comfort level with physical risks to significantly influence their perception of their Overall Risk Inclination. But I have been wary to assert this due to fact that most of people who have indicated this to me are aware of my inclination to take physical risks by skydiving.

Their comments often start with a statement such as, "I could never do what you do. I'm not a risk-taker." This seems like a pretty clear reference to physical risks such as skydiving. Given time, I will explore with person making statement areas of their life where they are more risk inclined. Once we can disconnect their perception of their Overall Risk Inclination from their comfort with physical risks, they will often revisit their initial statement. I love when that happens! They conclude conversation feeling a bit differently about themselves.

So, how much correlation did we find between respondents first assessment of their Overall Risk Inclination and their physical risk inclination? It depends on what group of respondents you are looking at. For males, assessments are almost identical. My suspicion was confirmed.

For females, there is a lot less correlation, so same theory does not seem to apply to women. For women, highest degree of correlation with initial assessment of Overall Risk Inclination is with financial risks. For both genders combined, highest correlation is with emotional risks. I leave it to you to discern significance of these correlations. Nothing in particular has yet occurred to me. If something profound comes to mind, send me an email and let me know.

Impact of Age - One of questions I get most often on topic of risk inclination is how it changes with age. Research has shown that most people become more change adverse as they age. But comfort with change is only part of risk equation. So, what can we glean from responses to surveys about how risk inclination changes with age? There are some insights, but I would not consider conclusive without a lot more data. There are, however, some interesting patterns.

My guess is that if you were asked, based solely on intuition, whether people become more or less risk inclined as they age, you would say less. I agree and think most people would say same. But we are not necessarily correct.

The responses to survey show that, for population surveyed, there is not a statistically significant change in risk inclination based on age. But things change when we look at responses by gender. Men show a reduced inclination to risk as they age, but women do not! The women in population surveyed showed an increase inclination to risk as they age. This is a fascinating observation that bears more research.

At this point, we can only speculate as to causes of this increased risk inclination. It could be attributable to fact that women I asked to respond to survey are, by my observation, reasonably financially secure. I would be inclined to suggest that some types of risk inclination increase with financial security.

Another factor that could be contributing to this increased risk inclination with age in women is a possible latent desire to enjoy activities and take advantage of opportunities that were difficult for them to pursue earlier in their lives due to obligations of raising a family. Some sociologists have suggested that may women spend first half of their lives tending to needs of others and second half of their lives addressing more of their own needs. That concept could be related to survey results.

Both of these possible explanations are just supposition until validated by further research. But women's increased risk inclination as they age as indicated by survey population is still quite thought provoking.

Yours Alone

While it is interesting to know how your risk inclination compares to others, please do not let it influence you too much. How you compare to others is really not that important.

While we can learn from observing what others do well and poorly in this realm, comparing yourself to them is just not helpful. Your natural level of risk inclination - position of your Balance Point at this moment ( is a result of a multitude of factors that are unique to you. It is influenced by person you were at birth and all your life experiences since. Like you, it's unique.

It is an interesting reference point - and possibly a starting point if you choose to set about intentionally changing it.

(c) 2005 Jim McCormick. All rights reserved. Permission to publish or post this article is granted provided copyright is attributed to Jim McCormick and above information about author is included in its entirety.