You might be right about the correlation! I started investing when I started to rethink my lifestyle. At that point it was a bit of a game, so I was gambling more than making the kind of decisions that make for good long term investing strategy. I lost some money, but luckily the amounts were small.
As time has gone on, my lifestyle has become more and more frugal, and my investing has become more and more conservative. I am still at the riskier end of the spectrum though, because my pension investments are funds in european small caps / commodities / basic consumer goods / tech and emerging markets. My S&S ISA has changed a lot though, and now is mostly in dividend paying FTSE100 shares - no more small oil companies for me!
This still feels fairly low risk to me though because a) my early trades were off the scale risk-wise and b) my timescale is long - 25-30 years for the pension.
The timescale is one of the key points, and something you will appreciate if you read some of the recommended books on investing. IF you have many years before the stash is required to produce an income, then you would be better to look at a growth strategy just now. If you are already living off the stash then security of income (including an inflationary adjustment) is the key requirement.
Personally, when I start reducing the risk in my ISA and pension and moving to income producing investments, I will look at a mix. I would anticipate that a mixture of bonds, inflation linked gilts and dividend paying large corporate shares will be what I go with.
