All in on stocks? Young investors should beware of the risks, experts say
Originally published in The Canadian Press on November 18, 2025
Sandi Martin, a certified financial planner at Sandi Martin Financial Planning, said a person's capacity for risk is different from their psychological ability to take risks. She noted risk capacity depends largely on whether that person can control when they take the money out of their investment portfolio.
“If you can, and if that's 30 or 40 years from now, then there is no reason not to invest in a really high-growth long-term portfolio.”
An 80 per cent weighting to stocks wouldn’t be abnormal for an investor with a 40-year horizon, Martin said. She doesn’t recommend a 100 per cent stock weighting.
“I have seen people in 100 per cent equities, I do tend to get a little bit antsy about that. I do think there is reason to have a little bit of a more conservative or cash-based slice in a portfolio,” she said.
Martin added there can sometimes be an information gap, where investors are more knowledgeable about equities than bonds.
Fixed income acts differently from stocks and is needed for a well-diversified portfolio, she said. It can also provide predictable income investors can use to rebalance their portfolio between asset classes.
The best way to get fixed income exposure depends on how much money a person has to invest, said Martin.
She said fixed-income mutual funds or ETFs are great for people with less money to invest, provided they keep fund management fees low. In contrast, she said buying individual bonds can be better for people with more money to invest.
Overall, Martin said good fixed income investing requires a variety of maturity dates and different types of bonds — government and corporate, both domestic and foreign.