Risk Navigator · About 10 minutes

Understanding How You Think About Risk

Risk means different things to different people. Before we talk about specific investments, we want to understand both your financial capacity for risk (how much room your situation gives you), and your tolerance for it (how volatility actually feels to you). The two are different, and a good investment plan accounts for both. There are no right or wrong answers.

Section 1 of 6 · Your Financial Picture

When You'll Need the Money

How long your money has to work, and how much room you have for ups and downs.

Approximately how many years until you plan to start drawing from your retirement accounts?
401(k), IRA, Roth IRA, 403(b), pension, and similar accounts.
Do you have non-retirement investment accounts?
Brokerage, taxable, joint accounts, etc.
Approximately how many years until you'd plan to draw on those?
How much of your invested assets might you need to withdraw within the next 2 years for known goals?
Home purchase, education, debt payoff, medical, etc.
Which best describes your current income situation?
How confident are you that your income will remain stable or grow over the next 3 years?
Looking ahead to retirement, what share of your living expenses will be covered by guaranteed lifetime income, versus your investment portfolio?
Guaranteed lifetime income includes Social Security, pensions, annuities, or similar. If you're already retired, answer based on your current situation.
Section 2 of 6 · How Volatility Feels

Your Comfort with Risk

The next several questions are about how volatility actually feels to you — not how you think it should feel. Honest answers will make this useful.
How comfortable are you with risk in your retirement accounts specifically?
How comfortable are you with risk in your non-retirement accounts?
Section 3 of 6 · How Volatility Feels

Imagining the Ups and Downs

If your portfolio dropped 20% in the next month, your first instinct would be to:
"I understand that market downturns are a normal part of investing." When markets are actually falling, how true does this statement feel?
When you check your portfolio during a volatile period, how does it usually feel?
Section 4 of 6 · Real Market Memory

March 2020 — The COVID Crash

Between February 19 and March 23 of 2020, the S&P 500 fell roughly 34%. We want to understand what that period was like for you — not just what you did, but what it felt like.
Did you own investments during this period?
In response to the COVID crash, what did you do with your stock investments?
How strong was the temptation to sell or make changes?
Section 5 of 6 · Behavioral Signals

How You Relate to Gains, Losses, and Regret

When your investments have a particularly good month, how does that feel?
When your investments have a particularly bad month, how does that feel?
Think about a past financial decision you wish you'd made differently. Which is closer to your experience?
Section 6 of 6 · Your Risk Landscape

What's on Your Mind

Risk isn't just about the markets. It's about everything that could affect your plan. Sort each concern based on how much it weighs on you right now. There are no right answers, and you can skip anything that doesn't apply.

How to sort: click a card to select it, then click the bucket where it belongs. You can move cards between buckets at any time.
😌
Doesn't worry me
0 cards
🤔
On my mind
0 cards
😟
Weighs on me
0 cards
15 cards left to sort
Almost done

Final Thoughts

You've given us a great picture of how you think about risk. Before we put your report together, is there anything else on your mind?

Is there anything else you'd like us to know about your investment goals, concerns, or circumstances?
For example: an upcoming life change, a specific worry about the markets, something you've been meaning to ask a financial advisor — anything at all.
Putting your Risk Navigator together…
This takes just a moment.
Your Risk Navigator · Prepared for —

Here's what your responses tell us.

This is a starting point for our conversation, not a diagnosis. Your responses map to where planning can help most.

Your Risk Profile
Tolerance and time horizon, presented separately for each account type.
What Your Profile Reflects
A closer look at the behavioral signals beyond a single tolerance score.
Things We Should Keep in Mind
Pieces of your financial picture that influence how we'll think about risk together.
Your Risk Landscape
Concerns you flagged, mapped to the planning areas where we can help.
Topics for Our Conversation
A short list of things worth discussing in your first meeting.
About this assessment
The Risk Navigator measures several distinct inputs. Risk tolerance is your emotional and behavioral relationship with volatility, anchored where possible in what you actually did during real market events. Time horizon is how long your money has to work before you need it. Risk capacity is your financial ability to absorb losses without jeopardizing your goals. Tolerance and capacity don't always align, and that's part of what we'll explore together. Your profile describes your natural inclination toward risk — not a prescription for your portfolio. This compass is a starting point for conversation, not a conclusion. It is designed to be revisited at plan reviews, after volatile market periods, or when your life circumstances change. This report is prepared for informational purposes only and is not investment advice. Investment advisory services offered through Four Pines Financial.