IRAs nearing Retirement
My wife is retiring in December 2020, while I have 5 years left. We each have $400K in Ira’s.Obviously, with the climate now, we are worried. Reading your column this morning in the Tribune, I agree this climate is different than in the past. My wife’s is with the Government TIPS program, while mine is with Vanguard, with a 67-33 stocks to bonds. Do we need to be in a more conservative investment as retirement closes in? Should we move all our funds to a low interest rate fund where we won’t be losing money until the climate changes?
Terry Says
A bit confusing here. Is your wife’s retirement plan in the government Thrift Investment Program — or invested in a Treasury TIPS bond fund? If the former, you can still switch about 15 percent to the most conservative money market fund. You’ll get the sale price of her stock funds if in the Thrift Investment Program as of the close today, which could be down substantially from the highs earlier this year (likely a 20% loss) and maybe move another 10percent on a significant bounce in the market.
And I hope you both have some cash outside these retirement plans. If not, use any bounce to move some of your money from the stock fund. I have been harping on having “chicken money” for months now, hoping people wouldn’t get caught in this situation.
