Congratulations! As you approach retirement, your investment portfolio has grown to a size that you suspect you’ll be fine to stop working and live the good life. But…. how do you actually generate income from those retirement accounts?  And how should you invest now that you’re so close to retirement?

I use a bucket strategy to talk about investing in retirement.  There are three mental buckets:

1. CASH: This is money you need in the next 1-2 years. It should be held in cash or money market accounts and ready to spend.
2. INCOME: This money you will want to spend in years 3-8. It should be invested in a mix of bonds to keep up with inflation, but not lose much value in a volatile market.
3. GROWTH: This money you’ll want to spend in 8+ years and can be invested in a well diversified portfolio.

How do you decide how much you need in each bucket? Simple: Calculate your expenses for each year and then subtract any income (social security, pension, etc). Total years 1-2 for the first bucket, 3-8 for the next bucket and the rest is for the third bucket.

After all the calculations, you should be left with a mix of cash, stocks and bonds to invest your overall portfolio.

Find out more about Mike at https://www.mortonfinancialadvice.com and connect at https://www.linkedin.com/in/mwsmorton/