“Bear proof” your retirement: How to protect your finances

Saving for retirement? At some point—or points—stocks and bonds will have down turns as you withdraw funds during your golden years. Learn how you can “bear proof” your investments so those dips don’t zap your savings.    Evaluating your portfolio Physicians tell their patients that they need to take preventive measures to stave off diabetes, heart attacks and other avoidable medical conditions. Similarly, physicians should be taking preventive measures to financially plan for the best possible retirement. Most likely you are investing in 401(k)s and other market-driven investments, but what are you doing to prepare for years when the stock market goes down rather than up? According to a recent Wall Street Journal article, when savers “are forced to make withdrawals early in retirement from a declining portfolio, there will be fewer shares left over to benefit when the market eventually goes back up.” And this could cause irreparable harm to your retirement accounts.  If you have maxed out what you can invest in your 401(k) and other retirement plans, it may be worth taking 20 percent of your additional planned investments to create an alternative source of income through a non-correlated asset, which would be an asset not directly tied to the market, says James L. Laughlin, II, senior vice president of marketing for Millennium Brokerage Group, LLC, a strategic marketing partner of AMA Insurance (AMAI). How it works Diversifying a percentage of ...
Source: AMA Wire - Category: Journals (General) Authors: Source Type: news