Understanding the risk factors that can come between you and your ability to retire (both how and when you want) is an important step toward meeting your retirement goals.
In today’s environment, Risk Management is more important than ever. If you’re nearing retirement, increasing your focus on monitoring risks in response to an ever increasing volatile risk environment, you may have questions about who is responsible for developing a risk management strategy and what are the different risk management strategies?
Here’s what you need to know to better address today’s top risk areas.
First Things First: What is Risk Management?
The term “risk management” can be a bit of a buzzword, but it’s really just a structured approach to addressing risks. Retirees face a slew of risks in their golden years. The most common among them are outliving their savings, high medical bills and unexpected costs, such as major home repairs.
Risk management is best understood not as a series of steps, but as a cyclical process in which new and ongoing risks are continually identified, assessed, managed, and monitored. This provides a way to update and review investment planning strategies as new developments occur and then to take steps to help protect your nest egg.
Retirement planning means finding the best way to help protect the life that you’d like to be living after you stop earning income from employment. And Risk Management should be a part of every retirement income plan.
Types of Risk Tolerance
Every Iowan has a different level of risk they’re willing to take when it comes to investing for retirement:
- High level of risk tolerance: If you have a high investing risk tolerance, you’re a risk taker or optimist by nature. You may be OK weighting your portfolio with lesser-proven stocks or other investments that could be on the cusp of big gains but could also dip dramatically if certain assumptions about markets and demand don’t pan out.
- Moderate level of risk tolerance: If you can tolerate some risk, you may prefer investments that are likely to produce solid gains over time but may also drop somewhat. Many established companies produce those types of results, which track equity markets, such as the S&P 500 or Dow Jones Industrial Average, or an industry’s wider performance (real estate, for example).
- Low level of risk tolerance: If you’re uncomfortable with all but the smallest risk, you’ll probably be more comfortable buying into more conservative products, such as blue-chip stocks, consumer goods stocks, utilities and bonds. These types of investments typically generate more moderate gains in share price but are less likely to nosedive.
Understanding Retirement Risk Factors
To help increase the likelihood that you’ll have the funds you need when you reach retirement age, keep these five risk factors in mind:
- Risk Factor – Inflation: Pre-retirees and retirees alike need to take inflation into consideration and now is the time to take action to help address these inflation and longevity concerns by planning for multiple scenarios.
- Risk Factor – Market Volatility: Today’s financial markets have become increasingly volatile and complex, which can create uncertainty for older Americans wondering when they’ll be able to retire and how long their retirement assets will last.
- Risk Factor – Longevity: Longevity risk for retirees refers to the possibility that they will live to such an advanced age that they will deplete their retirement savings and have to rely solely on Social Security and Medicare for their expenses.
- Risk Factor – Withdrawal Strategy: A retirement withdrawal strategy can help you determine a safe amount of money to take out of your investment accounts each year. The strategy you choose will dictate how much income you make available for yourself, which in turn affects your quality of life in retirement.
- Risk Factor – Healthcare: Unexpected medical bills and high out-of-pocket costs can put a major dent in your retirement savings. A couple retiring at 65 years old in 2022 can expect to pay about $315,000 in health care costs on average — 5% higher than estimated the year before — according to CNBC News.
Start Your Risk Assessment Today
As 2022 has taught us, anything is possible. Whether high or low risk, there is risk in every investment. When thinking about how much investment risk you want to take on, you should be practical. Your financial circumstances may justify taking some reasonable chances or ratcheting down your risk profile.
Risk tolerance is a highly individual matter. You should consider working with a knowledgeable local financial professional who can help you further shape your risk philosophy and suggest investments that fit within it. At Johnson Wealth & Income Management, we cover retirement risks and strategies to help ensure a smooth road to retirement. We provide investment advisory and consulting services and monitor our clients’ risk exposures continuously. With decades of experience and a proven process, you can count on our Fiduciary professionals to help ensure you’re making the right moves with your money.
Final Thoughts
Those who learn to control, manage, and mitigate risk stand the best chance of retirement success.
At Johnson Wealth and Income Management, we will sit down with you to craft a plan that will help ensure the reduction of risk in future retirement planning and investing opportunities.
Looking to get started on your risk management plan for 2023? Contact us today.
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