What’s Your Investing Love Language?
By: Lauren Jacobs
Knowing your ‘investing love language’ is an important part of your investing journey, giving you insight into what matters most regarding your money and milestones. The Five Love Languages are well known. Knowing the love language that you gravitate to is a great gateway into knowing your investing personality and preferences.
Here are the five investing love languages:
The quality time investor: Sticking to the Right Timeframes
The original love language: Value undivided attention and quality interactions.
The Investment edition: Time is your golden thread. Time with loved ones setting shared goals together. And timelines for these goals to ensure you meet your milestones. Whether you're saving for a home, funding a child’s education, or building retirement wealth, you understand that each goal comes with its own investment horizon. Your disciplined approach keeps you focused, helping you stay on track despite market fluctuations.
Your love match: Investment vehicles like retirement annuities, endowment policies, and tax-free savings accounts suit your strategy, offering structured timelines, tax efficiencies, and long-term growth potential. If you value quality time with a loved one, then consider having monthly meetings to set shared goals and celebrate milestones.
The physical touch investor: hands-on and in control
The original love language: Physical affection is a fundamental way to feel loved.
The investment edition: You see investing as an interactive experience, preferring to be hands-on in managing your portfolio. Monitoring performance, making adjustments, and staying in control of your investments is important to you. Accessibility and flexibility are key, allowing you to react to market movements and refine your strategy as needed.
Your love match: Digital investment platforms like SatrixNOW cater perfectly to your approach, giving you real-time views of your portfolio and a broad range of investment options at your fingertips.
The words of affirmation investor: guided by expert advice
The original love language: Expressing love through verbal compliments, praise, and positive reinforcement.
The investment edition: You feel most confident in your investing journey when you’re working together with a financial adviser, spouse, or family member to review your financial plan, goals, and investment progress. Regularly scheduled check-ins are important to you.
Your love match: Setting up regular meetings with a financial adviser to discuss your investment strategy gives you the reassurance you’re on track. You also value collaborating with loved ones to set goals and work towards them together.
The receiving gifts investor: disciplined in gifting your future self first
The original love language: Value the thoughtfulness behind giving and receiving gifts.
The investment edition: You see investing as a way of consistently gifting your future self, making this a priority before anything else. This disciplined approach ensures your wealth grows steadily over time.
Your love match: Watching your portfolio appreciate brings you satisfaction. Investment vehicles like exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and unit trusts give you exposure to multiple asset classes in a single investment, ensuring steady growth with reduced risk. Consider gifting loved ones investment vouchers to get them started on their journey to build lasting wealth as well.
The acts of service investor: entrust someone to do you the service of making investing easy
The original love language: Actions of service speak louder than words.
The investment edition: You value convenience and prefer a seamless, low-maintenance way to grow your wealth. You often entrust professionals with the service of making your money work harder for you, leaving you free to focus on other priorities.
Your love match: You may gravitate to discretionary investment management services and fully managed portfolios, to lean on experts to follow strategies that align with your financial goals.
Jacobs adds, “The important thing to remember is that you may lean towards one love language, but it’s best to include aspects of all of them! Knowing yourself and your preferences is a pivotal part of goal setting. You need to understand what motivates you, what worries you, the timeframes you can stick to, what you can afford, and how you keep yourself on track.
Remember, it’s best to aim for a diversified portfolio that ticks the boxes of growth and stability. Challenge yourself to speak other languages of love. Investing in your future is an act of love, whatever the language you use to do it.
This Valentine’s Day, here is a quick quiz pinpointing your investing love language, based on the five famous love languages:
1. How do you feel most confident about your investment strategy?
A) When I have clearly defined goals with set time frames to achieve them
B) Checking in regularly and making adjustments as needed
C) Talking to an expert to confirm I’m on the right track
D) Contributing consistently and watching my portfolio grow
E) Knowing that someone else is handling the details for me
2. What’s your ideal way to stay engaged with your investments?
A) Reviewing my long-term goals and ensuring I’m on schedule
B) Logging into my investment platform often to track performance
C) Having regular conversations with a trusted financial adviser
D) Setting up automated contributions and watching my balance increase
E) Trusting a professional to take care of everything for me
3. If your investment strategy were a relationship, what would it look like?
A) A committed, long-term partnership built on planning and structure
B) A hands-on, passionate connection where I stay involved daily
C) A supportive relationship where I check in for advice and encouragement
D) A rewarding one where I put in the effort and get returns over time
E) A stress-free experience where someone else handles the details
Results:
Mostly As – Quality Time Investor
You love setting investment goals and seeing them through! Staying the course for each goal’s defined timeframe is your superpower. Your love match: Your disciplined approach lends you to longer-term wealth creation. Think about investing vehicles like tax-free savings accounts and retirement annuities you can commit to for five years or more.
Mostly Bs – Physical Touch Investor
You like being hands-on with your investments, monitoring and adjusting them regularly. Control and accessibility matter to you. Your love match: Investing via a platform like SatrixNOW could be very fulfilling for you, with a 360-degree view of your investing universe at your fingertips.
Mostly Cs – Words of Affirmation Investor
You thrive on expert advice and reassurance. Having a financial partner who keeps you on track is key to your confidence. Your love match: Having a long-term relationship with a trusted financial adviser to bounce ideas off and keep you on the right track could be just what you need.
Mostly Ds – Receiving Gifts Investor
As soon as your income is in, you prioritise gifting your future self first and growing wealth steadily. Watching your portfolio appreciate over time brings you joy. Your love match: You’re good to grow! Keep diversifying your portfolio through exchange-traded funds, for example, which give you lots of different types of assets in ‘one basket’.
Mostly Es – Acts of Service Investor
You prefer a seamless, hassle-free investing experience, where someone does you the service of doing the admin for you, freeing you up to focus on other things. Your love match: You may prefer the convenience of contributing to the funds and having a professional manage your portfolio for you.
* Jacobs is a senior portfolio manager at Satrix.
PERSONAL FINANCE