Here we go again...

Ok – a show of hands! Who’s feeling demoralised by the stockmarket? Who’s feeling a pit of anxiety in their stomach every time they tune into the news and see drops across all sharemarkets of 5%? Who is feeling battered and bruised every time they look at their stagnating and often declining superannuation balance?

I know my faith in the long-term returns of shares is being sorely tested after the bloodbaths of the last few years let alone those earlier in this century (the dot com boom and bust is sooooo last decade!). Add to this a failing confidence in the abilities of governments, policy makers, investment bankers, ratings agencies etc. who seem to have all played their part in the train wreck that is this unfolding debt driven nightmare.

What is clear with the benefit of our oft-mentioned friend, Harry Hindsight, is that taking a more conservative approach towards our investments as we near retirement is a sensible, prudent approach. Yes, we may miss out on some of the glorious, exciting upside when the stockmarket is in “bull” mode, however, the impact on us when we lose large chunks of capital, at a time when we are visualising an end to our working lives and fulfilling some of our long held dreams and aspirations, is hard to bear for most of us with modest retirement balances.

How this conservative approach looks for each of us is of course an individual decision. What it does require is an inner resolve to get up close and personal with where our money is invested. No excuses for those of us who have a “head in the sand” or a “set-and-forget” policy. Having financial assets necessitates our involvement. Whether this involvement is a little or a lot is something you need to determine and depends on your interest and time constraints. A reliable adviser can be an objective sounding board for our anxieties, not to mention a welcome helping hand in mapping out the possibilities and choices we have for our investments.

But, still, I refuse to drown in a sea of doom and gloom. Having survived a few personal life changing events in the last few years (and who amongst us dodges these?) I am learning that life has a way of restabilising and adapting to new realities, as fortunately, do we. The sun still comes up, the world keeps turning and life demands that we get on and make the best of our circumstances. What other choice do we have?