This error can have severely negative financial consequences. For example, if a 25-year-old member decides to invest his/her Accumulated Retirement Savings in the Capital Preservation Portfolio over his/her entire working life (i.e. for 35 to 40 years), he/she could end up with a pension some 35% to 50% less than had he/she invested more appropriately in the Balanced Portfolio for the majority of the time.

So, if you are young and you are not concerned about your Final Payment Risk, you should invest primarily to manage your Inflation Risk. 

Experience shows that some members believe that they can "time" the share market. This means they try to get out at the "top of the share market" and buy back in at the bottom of the share market.

The reality is that even the vast majority of expert investment managers cannot "time" the market effectively.  The evidence shows that members who try to "time" the market usually get it wrong. The evidence also shows that members chase the share market when it is near its highs (the worst time to do so) and avoid the share market after a sharp fall (often the best time to get back into the share market).

If you can consistently time the market correctly, you are almost certainly in the wrong job!