Conservative Growth

  

You’ve got a lot of money, and you want to make your pot of money even bigger. So you consider using something called a “conservative growth” strategy. The goal is to build wealth over time, with an emphasis on “wealth preservation.”

This is where the debate starts among pundits on what is actually a “conservative growth” strategy. The basic strategy has been an allocation of 60% in bonds and 40% in stocks. But anyone paying attention to 2008 knows what can happen.

If you want to preserve money, the purest way is just to index your money to inflation and get a return on Treasury bonds. But...what's the point of that?

So you’ll see a lot of financial companies create “conservative growth funds.” And these funds charge annual fees that eat into the return. The funds basically build a portfolio of bonds and stocks.. people could have just as easily learned the strategy and built the portfolio by hand in a matter of 20 minutes. Sounds like a plug for a trading course.

Related or Semi-related Video

Finance: What is an Aggressive Growth Fu...67 Views

00:00

Finance a la shmoop what is an aggressive growth fund a go-go fund

00:06

and/or a high-octane fund ah yes investment funds have oh so many [People put sticker notes on investment fund file]

00:13

labels there are income funds comprised mostly of bonds usually in high yielding

00:19

dividend kind of stocks and you can buy them managed like in the form of a

00:23

mutual fund or unmanaged in the form of an index fund there are growth and

00:28

income funds usually a combo of stocks and bonds so in theory the funds value [Value tree appears]

00:33

grows but it also throws off a lot of cash along the way then there are just

00:36

growth funds notice the word aggressive isn't in there on the volatility

00:41

spectrum well they live out here right-hand side of the bell curve when [Growth funds on right side of a bell curve]

00:45

times are good they're very good when times are bad they're also not good in a

00:49

good year a growth fund can be up 15 20 % maybe more in a bad year well down

00:55

the same so now tack on the word aggressive in front of [Man puts aggressive label on investment fund file]

00:59

that fund flavor and you can maybe double the volatility for the good and

01:04

the bad and the high-octane fund is you know an allegory for gasoline on a fire [Man with gasoline tank by a fire]

01:10

it can really roast you nicely and warmly in the cold night or it can well [Fire creates explosion and man runs away]

01:16

do that so what do aggressive growth funds like these invest in you know go

01:20

go aggressive let's go not just once but twice

01:23

well they invest in typically risky volatile stocks a whole lot of

01:27

technology stocks that are unproven small tech companies are regular

01:31

favorite of this class is this little company the next Amazon in 20 years or [Woman sat at a computer desk]

01:36

is it Pieceocrap.com well over long periods of time and

01:40

inside of bull market era like decades where the market generally goes

01:44

up like it has been since 2009 while aggressive growth funds might compound

01:49

at 11 12 13 14 15% something like that whereas a bit more conservative

01:54

just growth funds might only compound at 8 9 or 10% but those two

01:58

percentage points of compounding actually matter a lot over the long-run

02:02

remember that rule of 72 well take the compound interest and divide it into 72 [Rule of 72 on a 100 dollar bill]

02:06

and that's how long it takes to double well it applies here as well the

02:10

aggressive, in aggressive growth fund should in theory anyway add two percent

02:15

in returns or reward in good times thanks in large part to the added risk

02:19

taken in that category so 36 years pass and that aggressive growth fund all else

02:25

being equal should be double of what a normal growth fund should be but with a [Aggressive and Growth funds marked on a graph]

02:29

whole lot more volatility see that 2% divided into our little rule of 72 thing

02:34

there well that's 36 years to double with that extra 2% so if you can handle

02:39

the volatile, violent, flame field rocky mountain style peaks and volatility [Lava spews out of volcano]

02:45

valleys of depression canyon and kill me now cave well then you'll love the view

02:50

from Everest Lookout and punitive taxes peak if you're an investor like the

02:56

wealthy and aggressive go go high octane funds yeah go go for it [Woman skiing on mountain and falls off the edge]

Up Next

Finance: What is fund diversification, and why is it important?
45 Views

What is fund diversification and why is it important? Fund diversification means investing in different financial products and sectors. It’s real...

Finance: What are Balanced Funds?
37 Views

What are Balanced Funds? Balanced funds are a combination of different investments, hence “balanced.” They can be comprised of stocks and bonds...

Finance: What is Capital Appreciation (Mutual Funds)?
10411 Views

What is Capital Appreciation (Mutual Funds)? Capital Appreciation is the increase in the market value of an investment asset, meaning it can be sol...

Find other enlightening terms in Shmoop Finance Genius Bar(f)