Get Income For Life
Kiplinger's Personal Finance|October 2017

These 12 strategies will help ensure that your retirement savings last as long as you do.

Eileen Ambrose
Get Income For Life

When it comes to saving for retirement, maybe you’ve done everything right. You started early, maxed out your 401(k) plan, invested in a diversified portfolio and avoided costly mistakes, such as cashing out your retirement plan. Fantastic. But now comes the hard part: making sure you don’t outlive your money. // That’s a tall order for today’s retirees. Taxes, unpredictable investment returns, rising health care costs and inflation down the road can significantly erode the value of your nest egg.And perhaps the biggest challenge is that you’ll probably need the money for a long time. A 65-year-old man has a life expectancy of 19.3 years; it’s 21.6 years for a 65-year old woman. If you’re married, there’s a 45% chance that one of you will live to age 90 and a nearly 20% chance that you or your spouse will live to 95. // Fortunately, there are steps you can take to generate extra income and extend the life of your portfolio.

1 PUT YOUR MONEY IN BUCKETS

A bear market just as you enter retirement couldn’t come at a worse time if you’re forced to sell securities after prices have plunged. Certainly, many investors today worry about how long the bull market can keep running (see “When Will the Bull Market End?” on page 59). That’s where the “bucket system” can help. Basically, you divide your money among different kinds of investments based on when you’ll need it. Jason L. Smith, a financial adviser in West Lake, Ohio, and author of The Bucket Plan (Green leaf Book Group Press), uses the system with clients, splitting their assets among three buckets: “Now,” “Soon” and “Later.”

This story is from the October 2017 edition of Kiplinger's Personal Finance.

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This story is from the October 2017 edition of Kiplinger's Personal Finance.

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