Quora Answer: What Type of Investments Do You Look for as You Get Older?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “What type of investments do you look for as you get older?”

As we get older, our priorities change.  We start looking for more liquidity in some of our investments, because we will need them for unanticipated expenses.  There may be little fundamental changes in the nature and type of existing investments, but there is a change in the weightage.

Personally, I am in my mid-forties.  I am no longer looking for anything longer than 20 years beyond what I already have.  That means no 30-year Treasury bonds, no long-term property developments with a yield 10 years down the road, and no more risky equity positions, because I am no longer willing to wait for a recovery of value.

What I have done is transferred much of my portfolio to investment vehicles such as trusts and companies.  Trusts are also useful for shielding my assets against personal loss, such as legal action and bankruptcy petitions.  Trusts also become testamentary automatically upon my demise.  As a Muslim convert in Singapore, this is important to me. I do not wish for my estate to be distributed according to the Administration of Muslim Law, and the antiquated interpretation of Muslim inheritance law.  This prevents my non-Muslim family from inheriting from me, and the bulk of my estate would end up with the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore.  I have no relationship with the Muslim community, and I did not build my wealth to benefit people who have never benefited me.