At the Outlook Money 40After40 Retirement Expo in Mumbai, Kotak Mahindra Bank Managing Director Nilesh Shah discussed about challenges that investors face in retirement planning and how to cope with market volatility. He emphasized that market fluctuation is inevitable, but could be dealt with by either fate or preparedness.
To illustrate this, Shah employed two instances. He quoted Tsutomu Yamaguchi, a double survivor of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings, to show how sometimes luck may assist investors in overcoming market downturns. Conversely, he quoted Rahul Dravid a cricketer who is famous for patience and flexibility, to emphasize the need for preparedness in dealing with financial uncertainties.
Shah emphasized some main strategies to address market volatility. He instructed the investors to adopt a long-term approach since market fluctuations over the short term cannot be avoided. It is necessary to know your risk appetite as some are risk-takers whereas others are not. Investment over debt, equity, and gold diversifies risk. Disciplined investment via SIPs is also very crucial to keep fluctuations at bay while creating constant returns over the course of time.
He also divided investors into three categories. Aggressive investors invest even in downtrends and are risk takers, conservative investors maintain capital preservation and exit from volatile markets, and average risk takers take a balanced route, continuing investment with minor adjustments.
Shah concluded by stating that investors should not be led by short-term market movements but by disciplined investing, risk assessment, and long-term perspective which will navigate them through uncertainty and allow them to make sound financial choices.
