Do not speculate with your old age allowance!

Secured funds instead of risky investments: Why should investors take unnecessary risks as they age? Photo: iStock

I am retired and plan to take retirement funds and capital. How should we invest our 1.65 million francs? AND F? Actions? Shares of WIR Bank, having already deposited more than 300,000 francs on savings accounts and 130,000 francs on other accounts of this bank? What do you think about the cannabis certificate and the Swissquote actively managed multi-cryptocurrency certificate? R. H.

According to your information, your standard of living is already well covered by the pension of your and your wife, and your single-family home is also debt free.

They would have a little more leeway with the systems. As such, I would recommend that you develop concrete investment proposals from several banks. Because such an amount of CHF 1.65 million should be structured and invested with a clear strategy.

However, you write to me that you have already had bad experiences with banks and their asset management and that you have obviously suffered losses and have been bothered by high fees.

Of course, I do not know what went wrong with these banks; Nevertheless, I do not rule out that you are using the expertise of a bank. Especially for the development of the strategy and its implementation, I think it is important.

You can inform the bank about the risks you want to take and the types of products you want to use.

For example, if you want to focus on low-cost exchange-traded funds, you can ask several banks to develop strategies based on these funds.

I am skeptical when asked if you should buy WIR Bank shares. For reasons of risk:

According to your information, you and your wife have already parked more than CHF 400 000 with this bank on several accounts. You should be aware that in the event of a bank collapse, the law allows only a maximum of 100,000 francs per client and not per account.

That would mean that only 200,000 francs would be guaranteed for you and your wife. If you also buy stock certificates from the same bank, you will increase the existing cluster risk, which, in my opinion, does not make sense.

On the contrary, I would be more diversified in investing cash even in banking relationships. In my opinion, it is even better to invest money at least partially. Incidentally, securities such as funds, bonds or shares remain in the possession of customers, even in the event of bankruptcy.

Before investing money, you should think carefully about the number of risks you want to take. It is important that you achieve broad diversification. In addition, I would divide the amount according to your different needs and investment horizons.

I would invest a lot of money conservatively – mainly in bonds of good debtors. After all, it's your old age allowance. At most, you can invest a portion with a long investment horizon in dividend pearls – that is, high-yielding equities such as Swiss Re, Zurich, Swiss Life, Swisscom, Nestle, Roche and Novartis.

However, this is only an option if you are willing to bear larger price swings. Because I expect that in the near future, we will face turbulence on the financial markets.

Rising interest rates, the United States' difficult trade policy and geopolitical risks are likely to weigh on the stock markets and lead to sharp stock price fluctuations.

As you also mentioned in your question, investments in cannabis certificates or cryptocurrency certificates are, in my opinion, speculative and, in my opinion, inadequate for pension benefits. and old age.

Because I would not speculate.

Martin Spieler is an independent expert in business and finance. He has been editor-in-chief of "SonntagsZeitung", the "Handelszeitung" and the "Money" and "Money Talk" TV scholarships. He directs weekly TV shows on TeleZüri, Tele M1 and Tele 1 and can be heard daily on different radio stations. In the "SonntagsZeitung" he supervises the category "Geldberater"