Retirement

Congratulations! You have worked hard and saved your money. Now it is time for your money to work for you, but realizing that you are more dependent on your investments can bring stress.

Here are some tips to help:

Learn About Aging

MIT Age Labs and The Hartford Company teamed up to study aging and what they found is that three questions can be useful in predicting your future quality of life. The three questions are:

• Who will change my lights bulbs?
• How will I get an ice cream cone?
• Who will I have lunch with?

Understand Your Benefits

As you begin to consider your retirement, you need to understand benefit program rules for Social Security and Medicare and any pensions to which you might be entitled.

Understand Key Financial Dates

Retirement accounts require that required minimum distributions begin at age 70 1/2. In addition, other types of financial assets like annuities may require distributions to begin by certain times.

Include Housing Decisions in Your Planning

This is also a time to consider potential future living arrangements, housing needs, and the emotions one may have towards one’s home.

Document and Communicate Your Healthcare Choices

There are certain key documents that everyone who is retired should maintain including a healthcare power of attorney and a will. The Conversation Project offers some great resources for those looking to Start The Conversation. Below are some links to a few helpful toolkits.

Generating Investment Income

In retirement, investment portfolios become more income oriented, and controlling portfolio volatility is increasingly important due to capital withdrawals. These considerations, however, must still be balanced by long time horizons and inflation considerations as the average person today spends nearly 20 years in retirement.