Retirement Planning for Non-Planners: Investment Basics

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September 22, 2021 • 44 min

As the non-planner of your family, you may not be interested in all the nitty-gritty details of retirement investments, but it is important to know the basics. That’s why today we will cover the main concepts about investing your assets. Hopefully, my nutrition analogy will help make these financial concepts more understandable. Press play to hear what you need to know about investment basics for the non-planner.

Investing in retirement is all about solving for risk

Last week you learned how inflation and market volatility are the two risks to overcome when investing in retirement. Solving for these risks are the most important part of creating a retirement portfolio.

To explain retirement investing, I like to think of nutrition. When you eat you solve the problem of being hungry now, but you also solve the problem of getting nutrients to your body to help ensure that you stay healthy in the future. Investing also serves to help you in the short and long-term.

How are you nourishing your investments in the short-term and the long-term?

With every meal you eat you are investing in your short-term energy. The vitamins and minerals that you may take help you invest in your long-term health. We keep enough cash and bonds on hand to sustain ourselves for the next 1-5 years and protect from market risk.

Stocks and real estate investments can have ups and downs which can be scary in the short term but in the long-term they help to hedge against inflation.

Ask your financial planning partner how you are nourishing your investments in the short-term and the long-term.

The building blocks of investment

It is important to learn the building blocks of retirement investing. Building a retirement portfolio is much like building a meal. There is the salad, the main course, and the dessert. Short-term investments are the funds that you plan to use within 1-5 years, mid-term investments will be used within 5-10 years, and long-term investments are funds that you don’t plan to use for more than ten years. Listen in to learn how these different investments are like building a meal.

Be sure to join us in October for the Taxes in Retirement series

Make sure to join us next month as we dive into taxes in retirement. We have certainly covered this topic before, but a lot has changed since the last time we discussed taxes. We’ll explore proposed tax law changes and discuss how that could affect you and your retirement.

Andy Panko from the Taxes in Retirement Facebook Group will join me over the course of the entire series. If you are really looking to nerd out on taxes, then don’t miss the episode with Wade Pfau who joins me to discuss his tax management academic research. If you are a part of the RRC you’ll get the added benefit of having both of these guests in the Clubhouse for meetups.

OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE OF THE RETIREMENT ANSWER MAN PRACTICAL PLANNING SEGMENT

[3:30] An investment analogy

[10:04] How to invest for the short and long-term

[18:25] The building blocks of investment

Q&A WITH NICHOLE

[22:51] What are some solutions to the Social Security funding problem

[29:19] The Rock Retirement book has been helpful to Steven

[33:32] Why I haven’t covered the sale of a business to fund retirement

[35:25] Will Jim’s retirement strategy work?

TODAY’S SMART SPRINT SEGMENT

[40:24] Think about how you will pay for life in the short-term, mid-term, and long-term

Resources Mentioned In This Episode