By Kate Ashford | NerdWallet
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Now that retirement spans more years than ever, you might need to rethink how you’re envisioning that stage of your life. Although Americans are retiring a little later than they did 30 years ago, they’re also living longer. Retirement isn’t a blip on the life radar — it’s a significant chunk of time.
While your parents may have retired and never worked another day in their lives, you may find that part-time work when you get older fulfills your mental needs and helps your retirement savings last. You may have to be more aggressive with your investments than you expected. And staying healthy is crucial.
“The questions I’m being asked are different, and the conversations clients are bringing to me are different,” says John McGlothlin III, a certified financial planner in Austin, Texas.
Here are the ways retirement might be shaping up for you.
You’ll keep more money in stocks
People used to enter retirement with a conservative-leaning portfolio that held a solid chunk in bonds and cash alternatives. Although advisors aren’t suggesting clients throw caution to the wind, they’re tweaking the investing plan at this life stage.
“We may just stay a little more aggressive, because the day you retire, you don’t need all this money,” says Jonathan Swanburg, a CFP in Houston. “Some of this money is for 30 years from now, some of it is for your kids and grandkids because you’re never going to touch it.”
McGlothlin encourages his clients to exit target date funds at retirement because he thinks they get too conservative. “The moment you hit that retirement date, they all of a sudden go to 50% bonds, and within a few years you’re at 60% and 70%…
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