How to invest at 69 years old
I am a 69 year old retired and very healthy nurse. I am divorced. Home is paid for (yipeee!!), new car paid for, no debts . I worked two jobs for awhile to get in this very good financial status. Children launched. I need about $5,000 per month for expenses. I will take social security ($4k)at 70 this December. I have $1.5million in a Fidelity Traditional IRA. I have endured at least 3 severe downturns in the stock market during my working life. Then I had the gift of time. I do not have that now. I lost about 20% of my portfolio last year. I currently have $625,000 in low cost stock mutual funds. The balance is in short term treasuries, money market and $200,000 in a Fixed Annuity expiring this October. Am I allocated correctly? My advisor previously said if market goes down severely I should buy. We meet again in February. I just don’t have the belly for high risk or the time…or do I have “time”. My “Retirement Analysis” done by Fidelity looks very good and takes me to 93 with lots of cash left over. Am I on the right course or should I be a low, medium or high risk investor at 69 years old and single? I Listen religiously to your podcast and in my younger years read your articles and listened to you on the old transistor and boom box!! ha!!!! Thank you for what you do.
Terry Says
HaHa! That’s a long time ago! How old is your advisor? Perhaps he/she doesn’t quite understand the emotional differences that happen when you are dealing with money IN retirement — not FOR retirement! Yes, you should have some stock market exposure — because a diversified portfolio should outperform inflation over the next 20 years. (After that you won’t notice much — even if you’re alive! At least, that’s how I think about it personally!) Fidelity is just making a projection, but it’s far better than a guess or a wish.
Neither of us knows whether the market will fall farther — or a new bull market is just beginning. Really tough to call these days. There’s an old saying: Sell down to the sleeping point. If that remaining $625,000 keeps you up at night, maybe sell 20% and keep it safe in additional Treasuries. But I wouldn’t be trying to “jump in” when the market is down at this stage in your life! That will generate commissions for your “advisor” and sleepless nights for you!
