Frances Cook

That timeline should always be adapted to our own personal situation and our own needs, our own priorities.

But we've got to start with this general timeline so you know the rules before you go breaking them for your needs.

Now, generally, the more time you have, the more you want to invest in risky assets.

When I talk about risk...

It's not risky like not looking both ways before you cross the street.

And it's not risky like throwing money into your mate's business idea to start up a new cryptocurrency with no experience in anything like that.

That is tossing your money into dumb stuff.

not making risky investments.

Sorry, rude, I know, but sometimes I just got to say these things.

In the investing world, risk means something different.

It's basically how volatile something is, which is just finance world talk for how much something goes up and down.

Volatile is it bouncing around and that translates to risk.

It might give you money hand over fist one year.

It might give you absolutely nothing the next.

That's why risky assets need time because over several years, it smooths out.

Those hand over fist times outweigh the bad stuff that happens in the low years.

You just don't know ahead of time which year will be which.

Whatever the gurus say, nobody knows ahead of time.

You've got to give it that time.

But they are still proven investments with known outcomes.