INVESTMENT savings plans must be viewed as a medium to long-term proposition to gain maximum benefit.
This point has been brought home strongly by the economic turmoil in Southeast Asia over the past few months.
Anyone taking a short-term view and having started in about mid-year would now be wondering about the security of their investments and whether, indeed, there was a future.
Joseph Yam, vice-president and head of Vista Capital Management for the Chase Manhattan Bank, said the investor must look at a period of about five years.
'The popular thing in Hong Kong is to look at something like 24 months,' he said. 'This is nowhere near long enough.' He suggested that four to five years was a better proposition if the investor was to see anything like an appropriate level of return.
This was essentially because of the cyclical nature of markets, again an obvious reference to the economic turmoil in Southeast Asia.