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Why longevity may still need growth exposure

Increasingly, people are prioritising quality of life over simply living longer. However, achieving this goal requires a well-structured, growth-focused plan that will provide you with financial freedom and independence for a retirement that could span multiple decades.

Our 2025 Asia Care Survey shows that cash and fixed deposits are the top retirement tools for 35% of Singaporean respondents. Yet among people who have a retirement fund shortfall, 51% say they need to diversify their cash holdings into higher-return investments. Which raises the question: Are people missing out on vital growth opportunities by being too cautious with their investment strategies?

When growth opportunities are mentioned, many people assume they involve taking on excessive or unsafe risks to boost their retirement savings. This perception often comes from associating “growth” with speculative or aggressive investing. In reality, growth investing does not necessarily mean taking on unnecessary risk—it is about allocating to assets with stronger long-term return potential, rather than relying on short-term or high-risk positions.

What does investing in growth mean?

Growth-oriented investment strategies aim to deliver capital appreciation and higher total returns by adopting a more pro-growth allocation approach. In practice, this involves allocating to assets with stronger earnings or income-growth potential, rather than to those primarily focused on income stability. Equities are a common way to access such opportunities—through individual stocks, sectoral or thematic funds, or region-specific exposures where economic or industry growth is more pronounced.

Growth exposure, however, is not limited to equities alone. Other asset classes can also play a role, including certain segments of the fixed income market and property-related investments such as real estate investment trusts (REITs), which may offer return potential linked to improving fundamentals or asset value appreciation. Alternatively, multi-asset funds provide exposure to a more balanced mix of these asset classes.

While growth assets can offer higher return potential, they are typically accompanied by greater volatility and risk. However, this does not make them inherently unsafe. If you have a multi‑decade investment horizon, you can mitigate this by broadening your portfolio’s horizons while maintaining a prudent investment approach.

Adopting a growth-driven mindset

Living better and for longer also increases the risk that your purchasing power will be eroded by the so-called ‘silent risk’ – inflation. Rising prices aren’t a new phenomenon, but annual salary increases during your working years help offset their effect. There is no such thing as a retirement increase every year, and that is when higher living costs start to bite. By incorporating growth into a portfolio, you can create a cushion that will help soften the effects of inflation.

A growth-focused investment approach can be the engine that powers your wealthspan, too – this is the number of years you have the financial means to support your desired lifestyle, health needs, and goals.

Ultimately, growth is vital for all age groups. An age-old piece of advice tells us that there is no time like the present to introduce change. And this is especially pertinent if you are seeking growth. As a starting point, you could consider realistic investment strategies that help manage risk and remain focused on your goals. Ultimately, the best chance of achieving growth comes from having a long-term plan in place.

Diversification can be one of the most effective ways to manage risk over the long term. It involves spreading your money across various asset classes, e.g. equities, bonds, commodities and real assets. This allows you to safeguard your growth potential by balancing risk and return – if one type of investment is weak, you can keep your portfolio on an even keel with an investment that is doing well.

Regular investment

If you contribute to your plan consistently, even small amounts can lead to significant growth in your savings over time and smooth out the effects of market volatility. For example, when you reinvest the interest from your investments, that money earns even more interest, helping grow your savings faster over time. There is also the concept of dollar cost averaging: when you regularly invest a fixed amount in a specific investment, your contribution buys more units when prices are low and fewer when prices are high. This can help lower the average cost per unit and reduce the risk of short-term market fluctuations.

Stay invested

Younger investors can usually afford to take more risk in pursuit of growth, since these investments have time to recover from market downturns. As you grow older and near retirement, you can then pivot into less risky assets. Markets do go down sometimes, but over the long term, they tend to go up. Understanding this can help you stay invested during a downturn instead of taking your money out and locking in losses. Remember, time in the market matters more than timing the market.

Even so, while diversification, regular investment and a long-term perspective strengthen portfolio resilience, you also need flexibility and a structure that evolves with you over time. And that is why we developed an investment approach centred around stage-based longevity planning.

A plan that transitions with you

Our lives don’t follow a straight path. We experience transitions like career shifts, health changes, and evolving family dynamics that require flexibility and foresight. At Manulife Investments, we want to ensure this journey is smooth by helping you achieve the growth needed to protect against inflation and live better for longer.

Manulife Empower Solutions1 is a stage-based investment strategy offering personalised planning that evolves as your needs change, ensuring you remain invested across market cycles. It also removes the need to make all-or-nothing decisions at key milestones.

To support this evolution, we use a glide-path approach that provides a clear framework for adjusting asset allocation over time through planned reviews. This means that earlier in life—when investment horizons are longer—portfolios typically allocate more to growth-oriented assets. As investors move through different life stages and approach retirement, this exposure is gradually reduced in favour of more stable, lower-risk holdings. However, growth assets remain an important component even in later years, albeit at a lower proportion, to help sustain long-term returns and keep pace with inflation.

The glidepath approach

Early career: Growth-focused and seeking to maximise wealth accumulation

Mid-career: Balancing growth with increasing stability

Pre-retirement: Risk reduction with an increased focus on income

Retirement: An emphasis on income, capital preservation, and some growth

Now, next and later

Longevity planning is about more than just building a financial strategy. It’s about preparing for a longer, fuller life. That means thinking ahead to evolving lifestyles, health needs, and financial risks that come with living longer.

The first steps do not need to be complicated. Start now by assessing your immediate needs and protection. Next, establish your mid-term goals and growth strategy. Then focus on the later years by planning for your long-term security and retirement. With this structure in place, you are better positioned to decide how you wish to create or adjust your portfolio.

Furthermore, financial professionals can provide support by helping you build a strategy that’s not only resilient but also deeply personal. The key is to start early, review regularly, and seek expert advice to stay on track.

 

1 Refers to Manulife Empower Conservative Fund; Manulife Empower Growth Fund; Manulife Empower Income Fund; Manulife Empower Moderate Fund.

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