"This Is the Only Chance for Ordinary People to Become Wealthy"... Expert Recommends This Investment Method [Retirement Pension Investment Strategy] ⑥

Interview with Jaekyung Lee, Vice President of Channel Solutions at NH Investment & Securities

Trust in the Power of Time and Korea's Growth Potential; Invest for 20–30 Years

Avoid Frequent Trading... 'ETF Short-Term Trading' Will Not Yield

"Wealthy individuals have enough spare funds to withstand a crisis. However, ordinary people do not have extra money to invest. For them, the only 'exclusive asset' they can grow over the long term is their retirement pension. Retirement pensions are the most reliable stepping stone for the average person to use the power of time to become wealthy."

Jaekyung Lee, Vice President of Channel Solutions at NH Investment & Securities. Photo by NH Investment & Securities

Jaekyung Lee, Vice President of Channel Solutions at NH Investment & Securities, emphasized the importance of retirement pensions during a recent interview with The Asia Business Daily.

Lee stated, "Concerns about the depletion of the National Pension Fund are growing, and simply saving up one's retirement pay is not enough to sustain 40 to 50 years of retirement life. However, if you manage this retirement pay well and achieve an annual return of 5 to 10 percent, the story changes completely." She continued, "There is no need to be swayed by temporary market corrections. Retirement pension funds are meant to be used 20 to 30 years from now. Even if the market plunges, if you stand on the side of time and hold on, you will eventually come out ahead."

Lee stressed that when it comes to retirement pension investment strategies, it is important to focus on index-based investments, accumulate funds regularly, and avoid frequent trading. She pointed out, "According to our client statistics, paradoxically, the lowest stock investment returns come from men in their twenties who frequently trade based on hearsay. On the other hand, minors whose parents purchased index ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) on their behalf and never traded achieved the highest returns. A retirement pension account is meant to be left untouched for 30 to 40 years. You can never make a profit through short-term trading, such as selling after making a 10 percent gain on an ETF today and then taking a break."

She explained that it is sufficient to set your portfolio ratio in advance according to your risk preference, using bonds and stocks from Korea and the United States, and then simply rebalance once or twice a year. Lee said, "Although South Korea may stagnate temporarily, it will ultimately converge toward its intrinsic value and grow by more than 2 percent annually. No one expected the Dow Jones Index, created in the 1880s, to reach today's levels even after two world wars. The answer is to trust in the power of time and national growth, invest passively, and focus on your main work. Rather than aiming for a windfall from individual stocks, you should accumulate index-based ETFs such as KOSPI200 or KOSDAQ150 in a regular savings plan."

Lee identified ETFs as the most useful investment tool. She stated, "Many individual stock investors should switch to ETFs. Ironically, people who know little about stocks often invest in individual stocks and enter the market at the wrong time, resulting in losses. ETFs may seem less exciting, not the so-called 'bad boy' style, and may appear less attractive, but you will suffer much less and can still make a profit." She added, "In fact, wealthy individuals often avoid becoming major shareholders and instead buy a lot of ETFs, achieving much higher returns than average."

Above all, Lee emphasized the necessity of education for investment. "It is really important to learn about the capital markets properly. I wish capital market education started in elementary school. At the very least, people should be educated on how to invest in ETFs through regular savings plans. Even teaching just the basics of how the capital market operates would dramatically reduce financial scams such as voice phishing," she said.

With the retirement pension market growing to 500 trillion won and competition among securities companies intensifying, Lee believes that customer-friendly infrastructure will be the key to competitiveness and is focusing on strengthening it. She explained, "Because the retirement pension market is a 'mass market' with a large number of small-scale subscribers, it is not easy to respond to each customer individually. That is why having a relevant system in place will become a source of competitiveness. Securities companies that enable investors to access accurate information and make sound investments will be in the spotlight."

This is also why NH Investment & Securities has completely revamped its systems and focused on improving the readability of investment information. As a result, NH Investment & Securities was selected as the top overall provider and ranked first in the securities industry for two consecutive years in the '2025 Retirement Pension Provider Evaluation' organized by the Ministry of Employment and Labor. NH Investment & Securities is the only company in the entire financial sector to be selected as both the top overall provider and the best provider in its industry (securities).

Lee said, "If our call response rate falls below 90 percent, I make sure to address it. You can buy goods tomorrow, but timing is everything in investing, so a user-friendly response system is our real competitive advantage."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.