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What is your biggest concern for retirement?

#11
My biggest concern is ensuring the funds I have invested in will produce interest that will outpace inflation. Being on my own is fine since I don't want the government to tell me how to invest I want to chart the direction I go in. Therefore if I had my way I would opt of of SS and invest that myself...aw well you can't have it all Wink
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#12
depending on the state in which you reside, health care exchanges may prove useful; especially if you are in a state that had a strong state insurance department which did a good job in regulating the insurance companies. The problem many folks are finding is that in weaker states, where the insurance companies controlled the entire process, coverage was usually not very comprehensive, and things like being declined for coverage because of a prior injury or illness meant many people were not covered, and now will be.
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#13
Don't get me wrong. I enjoy investing and I've built up a good sized portfolio, but folk like us probably only represent 5% of the population. The other 95% haven't saved and don't know much about investing.

I'd much rather they had a baseline of income and health insurance that we all have to fund, than pay extra taxes to bail them out in old age. And it would provide a baseline for any of us that fail to successfully manage our investments.
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#14
I retired about 14 years ago and have seen health care costs rise considerably. Part D Medicare premiums as well as co-pay have increased by a staggering amount. With Obamacare being implemented, I do not see any cost coming down.

Another big concern is the uncertain market and lack of income in fixed income investments.
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#15
Thank you for expressing a concern that also worries me. My husband and I worked very hard to put ourselves into an economically comfortable retirement at age 60. Now at age 66, as I realize that many of our peers are no where near prepared for retirement, I am concerned about a real problem for all of us when they get to their late 70s. An analogy might be that those of us who had no mortgage, no car payments nor any outstanding credit had to experience the misery of the crash and recession too.
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#16
If you mean how to manage your portfolio, rather than investing for income; I've found the Fidelity income planner helpful and have augmented it with a modified bucket portfolio (see morningstar.com articles by C. Benz,) and a withdrawal strategy modeled after one presented by Maria Crawford Smith at the last AAII conference (aaii.com.) The title was "Managing your money during retirement." Access to some of these may require a subscription.
 
Smith references several sources. One that was very helpful was "Decision Rules and Maximum Initial Withdrawal Rates" by Guyton and Klinger. I found it on Guyton's web site. He's a financial planner. Google it if you're interested in seeing more.
 
I use Fidelity, Morning Star, Excel and Quicken to plan my buckets, withdrawal needs and spending, I still do asset allocation, re balancing and all the normal portfolio management; all this other stuff lets me plan my withdrawals with a high degree of confidence that I won't outlive my money. It also helps tremendously with a good night's sleep and overcoming the urge to be too cautious with your money.
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#17
My biggest concern is the next phase of laws passed by the government...and who's going to pay for all the bloated government pensions that are bankrupting cities across the U.S.
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#18
You should consider Social Security as an annuity which provides diversification to your investments.
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#19
My first concern about retirement is not financially related.   My concern is to my mind sharp and keep active.  As a self employed CPA, I expect to work at some level into my 70s.  I am 59 years old and I still have things I want to accomplish.  I am cutting back every year, but I still want to be active.
 
Second concern is the resources for long term care.  Based upon my family history, I should expect to live into my upper 80s and hopefully 90s.  I want to live on my own (with my wife), but don't want to be a burden on my children.  I didn't buy any long term care insurance, so I am going to self insure.  My plan is to set aside specific amount of money so my children know that this definitely for my long term care.
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#20
Mrmax - "I'd much rather they had a baseline of income and health insurance that we all have to fund..."
 
Isn't that called Social Security and Medicare? Not being facetious, but what's to say that another "program" would be any better funded or managed? When a government gets money, it's all fungible, since it knows where it can always get more.
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