As you approach retirement, it becomes important not to take risks with the fund that you have built up for your retirement. This is partly because you have less time to put right any financial mistakes. Your income from employment will be coming to an end and your savings, investments, and pension fund might be all that you have to rely on for income.
With our mission worked out, if not yet our strategies, we will seek to discover just what we can be doing now that will keep us financially protected until retirement.
One such approach we could adopt is to think of Crash Proof Retirement.
Crash Proof Retirement
For a more detailed explanation of Crash Proof Retirement, you should follow the link above, but basically, it is about licenced experts advising retirees on how best to keep their money safe. It means analysing and educating investors in terms of strategies and approaches to follow from now onwards. You have done well to accumulate what you have financially so far and now it is about protecting that nest egg.
Obtain as much financial advice as you can from everyone about retirement so that you are fully prepared for it and not starting to make any wrong decisions.
Avoid High-Risk Investments
The investments to now avoid will be the ones that carry the greatest risks. This will mean not investing to make huge gains, but instead, investing safer for smaller gains and greater financial protection in terms of your investment portfolio. Your main aim now will simply be to make sure that your money keeps pace with inflation and so is not effectively losing its value.
Volatile markets are where the most money can end up being lost, which would be a shame when you have spent years building your retirement fund. Share prices continually fluctuate and unless you have the means or desire to keep fully up-to-date on the latest financial news and have a great understanding of how the current and future economic positions change things, then you are better to invest more of your money elsewhere in safer funds where the risk is spread more evenly over companies and continents. It provides greater peace of mind and mitigates potential losses at this late stage of investing.
Real Estate
You have to time when to sell real estate that may have formed part of your investment portfolio. A good selling time will, of course, be when house prices are at their highest. This scenario may only be possible by planning and allowing enough time to sell your real estate to recoup the maximum possible. You will need to keep an eye on inflation rates and interest rates and how the economy is impacting house buyers. These are the clues as to whether house prices will rise anytime soon. Your gains from real estate will be closely linked to the demand for housing at the time you wish to sell. However, while you still own your second home, you will still be earning value income to reinvest. You may want to do this for as long as possible.
In the interests of fairness to everyone, you will want to give tenants sufficient notice who may have been local to you all these years. Also, consider giving them first refusal on buying the house they have been living in and renting off you. It will be a ready-made and easy sale and a morally sound exit plan before your retirement.
A different decision to make might be whether to gift real estate to relatives upon retirement. It all depends on how much you need the money from your real estate to fund your retirement.
So, a few ideas or strategies to bear in mind here. Follow the Crash Proof Retirement strategy as a general one to protect investments and not do anything financially detrimental with retirement so close. Take all the advice you can get. Specifically, think now about avoiding putting or keeping your money in investments that are higher risk as it is time for some financial security approaching retirement.
It would be a shame to have managed things so well, whether due to luck or judgement, to then lose it all at the eleventh hour. Where real estate is a part of your investment portfolio, consider the exit plan carefully. You may want to recoup the value of your second home early at a time when house prices are high, rather than continue to receive a comparatively small rent and end up selling at a time when house buyers are staying put for their financial reasons, resulting in houses being in less demand. Planning with your tenants would be the responsible and prudent thing to do so that everyone is happy. They may even be who you sell to.