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My financial guy looked at how my company was allocating my 401K. He said it was great for younger workers who were farther from retirement, but not so good for me who was close to retirement. When he was able (when I turned 59) he moved a big part (not all) of my 401K money from the company's account into an investment account that he could allocate much more appropriately for someone close to retirement.
First off without knowing if your FG is a professional or not he does have good points. It looks like your company's 401k allowed in-service withdrawals. Not all 401k's allow this. Second you seem to be happy with the results of the new allocations because you are not complaining so kudos to the FG (financial guy). Since you do not mention the names of the mutual funds that you were rolled into we can assume it is either a single target date fund or a series of investments that includes equities, bonds, and fixed income.
For those looking to do that you will need to check with your 401k plan to see if you can roll out funds while still in service. If not you will need to wait until you are no longer working for the company. This is not unusual and something you need to know ahead of time.
Like some others here I have 2-3 years in cash & cash equivalents & the rest 60/40 stock/bond funds. I am using the cash to fund myself until I turn 68 & start drawing SS, at least that's the plan - market or health factors could adjust that earlier or later.
Of course there will be a market correction coming but I don't know if it's coming this October or in 2 years, either way I'm covered & just like 2008 I will leave my 60/40 in the market & perhaps add to the equity side if I'm able to. It was white knuckle time watching my savings almost halved back then but from this vantage point the upside afterwards was more than worth it, my worst case financial scenario is that I start SS earlier than I'm currently planning.
we did just that , i filed for starting my first check in october at 65 . been retired since 62 and worked part time starting at 61 . still do a bit of consulting work but i really enjoy doing it .
I would limit your cash to what you're going to need to pull out, and you have to pull some out at a certain point. Given the pain of a typical recession lasts 2 years or so, having a year's worth of cash and a year's worth of nearly due bonds is a good way to go (IMO). Otherwise, I'd be in the camp to keep the money invested. I tend to like to buy individual stocks/bonds but most people think that decision is terrible on my part. I like to think that it's the one thing I'm getting better at as the years roll past.
At any rate, if you're in your 60's, you've got a decent chance of making your 80's. Depending on where you are, you've got a very good chance of doubling your money yet again. So, make sure you're liquid so you don't have to be a forced seller, but then I'd keep the rest of the money invested in whatever you've been comfortable doing so far anyway.
Now, as interest rates go up, MM's may start actually making money again, and rising interest rates generally don't bode well for stocks, but I'd keep those constraints in your particular investing strategy. I wouldn't dive for cash out of fear. I'd be afraid I'd never know where to jump back in.
I haven't read everything, so I might be repeating, but are you young, OP, or older? Get your long term savings in a balanced portfolio, of stock and bond mutual funds, according to your risk tolerance. The younger you are the higher risk you can ride through. Put it with a financial planner who will monitor it and adjust the balance according to the market.
I am not necessarily recommending any company, but my husband left a company whose 401k plan was managed by Edward Jones, and their money was in a mix of John Hancock. He was happy about how much the 401k had earned in only the few years he was with the company, so we scraped all our IRA money into a pile, and dumped it at Edward Jones, invested in mostly John Hancock. We have been very happy with relying on the agent's quarterly review and advice.
Diversification is everything. I'm fortunate to have a safe 5% investment I can call at a moment's notice for my cash. I do have a money market account with one institution. This morning the balance was $18.46. That's about all the money I can afford to have not working for me.
For practical purposes, nothing is immune from ups and downs, including paper money. OP needs good financial advice. Not an easy thing to get. A lot of very impressive people/companies provide soothing assurances. Then sell you an expensive product that may or may not be right for you.
Investing at a comfortable risk tolerance level is important if one is to sleep at night. But you do need to have one. Looking for immunity from fluctuation is not a plan for someone "about" to retire. The days of 16% CDs and high yielding AAA bonds is long past.
We are roughly 20 years into retirement and are at an age and financial position where we can comfortably take more risk with our IRAs, as our SS, pension and cash can sustain us for (God forbid) another 20 years. But I'll keep our split where it is.
None of our kids need an inheritance, but there's no need to contribute to a big hotel in Vegas! I guess they'll just have to cowboy up and take the money.
I'm 3-4 years from retirement and my 401k is almost entirely in equities. . . Because . . . I have a pension plan I was grandfathered in to and that is in essence my money market account.
The plan is to take the lump sum and finance the 8 years from 62-70 to max my SS. I'm leaning towards a very conservative investment for the 1st 2 years while we wait for my wife to turn 62 and collect SS, she has a small pension too. I'll look for something relatively safe - I've used 2% as a guideline - for the other 6 years while letting the former 401k go with a higher equity allocation and hopefully higher returns and growth.
The luxury of the pension, either as an annuity or as a lump sum is that combined with SS it covers our monthly expenses with room to spare. From my readings, many retirement investment specialists pretty much say you can go higher, even 70-30 in equities if you have pension funds.
Ten years into retirement we are 70/30 equities. Our pensions and SS pay the bills and enable us to continue investing, however this is subject to change
I was assigned some stocks recently so my AA in stocks is 44% now.
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