Retire on a Long Term Equity Fund (LTF) in Thailand, Is It Worth It?

This study aims to clarify whether Long Term Equity Funds (henceforth LTFs) are worth the investment of those planning for retirement. The 5-year quarterly returns (2012 -2016) were used to calculate beta and Sharpe ratio of the LTFs then compared to the gold and Thailand stock market’s data. The results show that the LTF is worth investing for those planning to retire, due to lower risk, higher Sharpe ratio and have higher yield than gold and the stock market. The best LTF from selected LTFs is K20SLTF (Kasikorn Bank). Compare to the Thailand stock market’s beta of 1, Sharpe ratio of 0.12 and returns of 0.84%, and the gold’s 5-year beta of -0.17, Sharpe ratio of -0.14 and returns of -0.92%, K20SLTF has lower 5-year beta of 0.65, and higher Sharpe ratio of 0.44 and yields 3.24% quarterly. The contributions of this paper are to encourage individuals who are investing for retirement to invest in LTF and to encourage Thailand’s government to continue their support for LTF.