A bit of background information, I currently have a pretty good defined pension plan with my employer, above average salary and ability to contribute to savings, high earning potential, and a low cost of living. I'm also a bit of a minimalist and am happy getting by on less.
In the past few years I've finally gotten rid of my debts and am getting closer to having real money to start building a portfolio. I've been researching investing for the past year and the general advice I get is that the younger you are the more higher risk investments you should include in your portfolio. (currently I'm 31)
The question I have here is what the rationale of doing this is if it looks like your nest-egg is already going to be sufficient in retirement and you're happy with the income that you're likely to have.
My inclination as I research is that I do not want to take any significant risks with the money I already have, but then I read rules like 100 - age to determine high risk products as a proportion of my portfolio, and wonder if there's something I'm missing, if it would be unwise at this stage of my life to create a portfolio that's too conservative.
To me it seems like a lot of the rationale behind investing is 'more money = good' and whatever means we have to accomplish this we should take. But what about defensive strategy where we want to essentially minimize losses? Is this something that might be a good idea, or am I throwing money away?
As a corollary, if anyone has recommendations on specific investment products based on this situation, that would also be appreciated.