A sub-title for this blog post might be: Mutual Funds? Annuities? ETFs? Or what?

My not so clever answer is “It depends…”. To which you will ask “on what?”.

Here’s a list to start with:

• What types of investments have you been successful with?
• What is your level of fear that you’ll run out of money before you run out of life?
• How fast do you plan to take withdrawals so you can pay your bills?
• Have you thought about how to pay for Long Term Care if that ugly need arises?
• Have you thought about how long you might live?
• What’s your comfort level with making high stakes financial decisions without help from a trusted professional?

As you begin to explore these questions, it’s entirely possible every one of them will result in more questions for which you’ll have a difficult time answering. For example:

• I have a spouse. What happens to the money if I die first? Or not?
• Am I OK with paying someone a few percentage points to make my decisions for me? How many percentage points is too much?
• Long Term Care? How much care am I likely to need?
• I hear about using the 4% rule. Is that realistic in terms of making sure I don’t run out of money?
• Just how much investment risk can I live with every month and not get nervous?
• I just turned 62 and have signed up to start my Social Security benefits now. I don’t need them now but plan to invest the money so it will grow aggressively. Is that a good idea?

Money being set aside while you’re still in the workforce may have to last 30 years, or you may not make it to age 70. None of us has a contract with God to be here tomorrow, much less 20 years from now.

Notice I’m not trying to give you answers. Answers are a dime a dozen and will do little to bring you happiness and satisfaction during retirement. I’m trying to awaken you to the fact that how you make your retirement savings work best for you is to ask lots of questions. And then find your own answers that you can live with.

Two thoughts before I end this post.

• One is to take a look at the online school I’ve created to help people develop a road map to follow before they reach retirement and to some extent, the first few years of retirement. It’s called Successful Retirement Secrets and you can find it to the right of these words on my website.
• Two is look for the tab near the top called Retirement Resources. There you’ll find something I wrote called TK’s Car and House Story. It’s a further insight into how you might position some of your retirement savings to answer the questions posed in the sub-title to this post.

Tony Kendzior \ June 26, 2019