How To Make Your Retirement Money Last With These 5 Easy Steps
These are five simple things you can do to ensure nothing trips up your plans for a secure future:
- Contribute enough. The first thing investors who have a 401(k) plan at work should do is participate, say investing experts. Then, try to consistently increase your contributions to the extent possible. Over time, set yourself the goal of contributing the maximum allowed under the law.
“It goes back to an old adage: Pay yourself first,” said Art Miller, president of Capital Preservation Strategies in Illinois. “Make contributions even if has to hurt a little bit financially.” Many people, he added, don’t contribute nearly enough.
If you were auto-enrolled in your 401(k), the default contribution rate may be set at 3% or thereabouts of your pretax income. Bumping that up to 10% or even 15% is advisable. Be realistic about what your income needs in retirement are likely to be. Longevity is a risk. Americans today are more likely than ever before to outlive their money.
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- Review periodically. Miller is surprised by how little some of his clients seem to know about what’s really inside their retirement portfolios. They start off by describing themselves as conservative investors, but it eventually turns out that 70% to 90% of their portfolio is in riskier types of investments.
“Typically, people don’t watch what is happening to their accounts,” said Miller. His practice has catered to professionals, small-business owners, investors nearing retirement and retirees for approximately 26 years. . . .
–Investor’s Business Daily, April 1, 2016
https://www.investors.com/etfs-and-funds/retirement/you-wont-outlive-your-retirement-money-with-these-5-easy-steps/
Retirement is Changing in Unexpected Ways
Experts agree that the rising average age, better health care and increased healthy habits should affect how one plans for retirement. “Increased longevity has had a profound impact on how one must plan for retirement,” said Art Miller, president of Capital Preservation Strategies in Illinois. “When Social Security was passed into law in August of 1935 the average life expectancy was to age 65. Today, the fastest growing segment of the population is people aged 100.”
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Miller said . . . [that] after settling on a comfortable allocation strategy, one should plan for inflationary cost of living increases during retirement as well as the effects of taxation on ordinary income and Social Security. . . .
–The Street, April 18, 2016
https://www.thestreet.com/retirement/retirement-is-changing-in-unexpected-ways-13533915
Retiring during a weak economy
The vast majority of advisors urge their physicians to stand firm, hang in there, and not to panic by selling off stocks or mutual fund losers. However, the most salient question is how much money can a doctor afford to lose before he or she finally takes stock, no pun intended, has an epiphany, and searches for an oasis where their money earmarked for retirement is safe?
-Arthur Miller, Chicago Medicine, Vol. 111, No. 7
How To Make Your Retirement Money Last With These 5 Easy Steps
The first thing investors who have a 401(k) plan at work should do is participate, say investing experts. Then, try to consistently increase your contributions to the extent possible. Over time, set yourself the goal of contributing the maximum allowed under the law. “It goes back to an old adage: Pay yourself first,” said Art Miller, president of Capital Preservation Strategies in Illinois. “Make contributions even if has to hurt a little bit financially.” Many people, he added, don’t contribute nearly enough.
–Nasdaq.com (pick up of Investor’s Business Daily article), April 1, 2016
https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/how-make-your-retirement-money-last-these-5-easy-steps-2016-04-01
