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The stock market is the same as gambling in Vegas IMO. I'm out.
There are no guarantees in life that can not be broken.
What my wife and I are doing is building our retirement solely around our social security and that is all.
We own our small house, we don't have any debt and by design we live in a low cost, but nice enough and safe enough, of living area.
We have retirement savings in the low six figures but that's it. I suppose I should have saved more but even if given the chance to go back I wouldn't change anything I did. While we had youth and health we did some fantastic traveling together and lived life to the fullest.
Now we're down to what, the last 25% of our lives if we're lucky? 25% if I live to be 90?
I am happy and content, if I found myself on my deathbed tomorrow I wouldn't have any regrets wishing I had done this or went there because we already did. Thank you God, I lived a wonderful life!
We have our church, we have our friends and we will receive enough to where we will be able to afford anything we desire on social security alone leaving all the savings we have to the surviving spouse.
A confession to make. A month ago I retired because I got more than a little upset at work. Well, I am back at work, I'm a workaholic and couldn't help myself. But I was retired for a week.
If I can work just three more years, I will be 70, our combined social security will exceed $4,300 tax free dollars every month and as I told my wife if we can't live comfortably on that we got a spending and not an income problem.
Thing is when I do retire I don't want to worry about money at all. I've lived with stress my entire life in what I do but from the time I do retire I want to be totally stress free. I am planning the rest of our lives as if we don't have any money so I don't have to worry about it.
I want to sit in the warmth of my screened patio, surfing the internet while my wife knits in the chair across from me. We'll watch the birds at the feeder and watching the little ones next door playing is always a real hoot!
Retirement, and what you do with it, is a personal thing.
One possibility would be to spend your money on an apartment building, wherever you want to live for the rest of your life. Live in that building and be the manager. Then you would always have work. The only way anyone could fire you would be by moving out. Then you could get someone else to move in. From my point of view, being retired simply means being so old nobody wants to hire you. Having your own apartment building, you would never get that old, but would always have work. And people would always respect you, because, if they didn't respect you, you might raise their rent. I just don't really see the point of being retired and not having work. People were made for work. If we don't have work, who are we? Just old people without work. Nobody respects us then. What's the point? And in any case the whole point is to not run out of money in retirement. How are you going to run out of money if you have a bunch of tenants paying you rent every month?
The answer depends on how much money you have and how much you think you'll need... plus some inflation protection.
You may want to invest using multiple 'buckets' to serve different purposes depending on how much you need immediately, how much for income, how much for capital appreciation and inflation protection, etc.
If you don't have enough to divide in this way because you need the max income NOW or you have a very low tolerance for risk - which seems likely as you were easily spooked by a tiny paper loss in a full bull market - then a single premium immediate annuity may be the right option for you.
The OP clearly stated they are not capable of making their own investment choices.
Suggesting stocks, ETFs, strategies is not going to help them. All that requires understanding, following and a calm attitude about the ups and downs of the stock market with regard to paper losses.
I think without the OP giving some additional information as to what percentage of her portfolio she needs to live comfortably, it is difficult to make any worthwhile recommendations. Would 2% be enough or would she need 4%. Does she have enough to take out two or three years living expenses to get her through bad years when the market may drop and it is not a good time to be withdrawing?
I don't think that the OP needs to know a great deal about investing to sit on a very simple portfolio with perhaps only three or four funds in it. She can always hire a for fee adviser to help her re-balance once a year. That would only be an hours worth of work. What she needs is the ability not to panic. If she doesn't have enough to put in some CD's or short term bonds to weather the bad years, then perhaps an annuity is the answer.
Becoming a landlord at 67 is not for the faint of heart. I have been a landlord my entire working life and I am passed retirement age, and I can't wait until the day I unload my last rental property. I differ in my opinion of work. I long for the day of no more responsibility and could take life without work in a heart beat.
I think without the OP giving some additional information as to what percentage of her portfolio she needs to live comfortably, it is difficult to make any worthwhile recommendations. Would 2% be enough or would she need 4%. Does she have enough to take out two or three years living expenses to get her through bad years when the market may drop and it is not a good time to be withdrawing?
I don't think that the OP needs to know a great deal about investing to sit on a very simple portfolio with perhaps only three or four funds in it. She can always hire a for fee adviser to help her re-balance once a year. That would only be an hours worth of work. What she needs is the ability not to panic. If she doesn't have enough to put in some CD's or short term bonds to weather the bad years, then perhaps an annuity is the answer.
Becoming a landlord at 67 is not for the faint of heart. I have been a landlord my entire working life and I am passed retirement age, and I can't wait until the day I unload my last rental property. I differ in my opinion of work. I long for the day of no more responsibility and could take life without work in a heart beat.
My thoughts, exactly, on all of it. And, certainly, no landlord at this age. Way too much work and aggravation. Don't even think about it.
structuring for income is not only going to be a personal thing unique to you but the amount of descretionary spending in your budget is a big factor as well as who are you investing for.
pulling a little draw and aiming to leave heirs a pile of money is different than investing more for yourself and a life time of income .
the less descretionary spending you have the less you should be in equities. with little area to cut spending from in downturns if need be , you can do more harm than good. if everything is a need and not a want. if you have mostley needs and very little wants in the budget i suggest avoiding the volatility and risk of equity investing if that is ones case..
you can't pay 1/2 the rent if markets fall 40% and stay down for years.
ironically it is those who need the boost the most who should do it the least in my opinion.
the more descretionary spending in the budget the more aggressive someone can be and that goes for men too.
i would never give you personal advice but i can tell you how i intend to eventually structure with the premise my wife will outlive me.
80% of married men die married while 80% of married women die alone.
that is a huge planning factor.
while i am happy doing my own investing for all our income my wife would not be.
so with her in mind the plan is to eventually lock in all our basic spending into an spia , single premium annuity and ladder them so she gets a pay check each month and cannot
out live the income stream , a big relief for her . the spia has no extra fees ,commissions or expenses other than the stated draw rate. it is like buying a cd and annuity salesmen rarely sell them . generally you have to request the product as it is something salesmen are not interested in selling, not enough of your money goes to them..
you can check out the products at immeadiateannuity.com.
that may take 25% of assets in our case..
the rest stays invested in our income and capital preservation model portfolio which runs about 37-40% equity at the moment but i will increase that to 50/50 through retirement .
that portfolio comes from a newsletter i have been following for more than 25 years. each week fidelity insight which is the newsletter sends an e-mail as to any fund swaps to nudge the portfolio better towards the big picture.
they have a few different model portfolios to choose from.
i used to use the growth model but today have about 75% in the income and preservation model and 25% in the the growth and income model. each model holds 5 or 6 different funds, all fidelity though.
eventually it will all be just the income and preservation model for simplicity with perhaps an index fund added to beef up equites by 2% a year through my retirement making the model even more inflation proof while shielding us early on from any devastating losses.
30 seconds of reading a week and nothing else for her to worry about knowing or doing except swap a fund per instructions every so often.. .
that portfolio is used for her wants , heirs and inflation adjusting.
it is called THE LMP METHOD, LIABILITY MATCHING PORTFOLIO and is something bill bernstein recommends.
all basic needs are locked into that monthly spia check found in her account month after month like clock work.
most men fail to realize while they are these experienced aggressive investors most women are not nor have an interest or stomach for it.
for them it is not about growing richer , it is about not growing poorer ,either by inflation , unexpected spending or the whims of markets and rates.
i married a widow who was left in that situation by her first husband.
she trusted the broker at the bank and he lost 1/2 her savings in tech and dot com funds.
the posting the op is referring to was this thought i had posted:
as if we didn't know it ,women are different creatures than men. they think different ,have different needs ,wants and requirements.
any good financial planner will tell you:
men are more interested in growing wealth , they care about allocations ,investments , getting the biggest bang for the buck ( no pun intended),beating indexes , etc .
women clients are different as far as what brought them to that planners office and it is nothing like the mans reason. a mans reason is usually facts and figures , a womens reason is she has a story to tell. ( don't they always? ha ha ha
women have very different concerns and it is usually centered around the fact they have visions of being alone eventually and being the proverbial bag lady under the bridge after they out lived their money.
women want security , I know that because when I approach women in clubs they usually call out security ,security, ha ha ha
women live longer than men , a big point when planning but more important while 80% of all men die married ,80% of all women die alone.
I think that sentence requires reading a 2nd time as there is a huge difference in situation for a woman.
women usually don't like to take on much volatility,especially a widow who just lost a social security check or someone living alone..
MY FEELING IS ANYONE GIVING ADVICE TO WONEN , who fails to give different advice than they would for a man is likely giving wrong advice.
Last edited by mathjak107; 01-12-2015 at 04:03 AM..
We have our church, we have our friends and we will receive enough to where we will be able to afford anything we desire on social security alone leaving all the savings we have to the surviving spouse.
If I can work just three more years, I will be 70, our combined social security will exceed $4,300 tax free dollars every month and as I told my wife if we can't live comfortably on that we got a spending and not an income problem.
.
Do keep in mind that if you're living happily on the $4300 but need that much, that if one of you dies there could be only half that much.
Will that be enough to not have to start depleting the "low 6 figure" amount and for how many years ?
How low that is may matter a lot since low can mean anything from under 500,000 to 100,000.
that loss of a check is something not many consider in the plan. as well as the fact if they took ss early their spouse gets a double cut if they have to take survivor benefits early themselves . that is a big problem with younger wives.
having seen the situation my wife who was a widow was left in i am very keen on alot of issues that are off the radar in the plans of most folks.
have you ever seen anyone here give different advice to a woman than a man? i can't say i have.
as i always say a simple answer to a complex question will generally be the wrong answer.
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But I was retired for a week. 
