The 5-Year Plan To a Stress-Free Retirement
You can get a lot done in five years if you set the right goals and regularly track your progress. That’s why your last half-decade of working can be the ideal time to ensure your nest egg is ready for retirement.
Here’s the game plan to make your last five working years productive and fortify your finances.
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Year 1-2: Strengthen the base
A key step to any long-term financial plan is to pay off debt. Getting rid of high-interest debt like credit card debt and personal loans allows you to focus on building wealth instead of paying interest.
Then, maximize your retirement contributions (or at least contribute as much as you can). If you are age 50 or older, you can make additional catch-up contributions to your individual retirement account (IRA) and 401(k) plan.
Use a diversified tax strategy when saving. You can lower your current tax bill by contributing to traditional retirement accounts, since you won't pay taxes until you withdraw funds. Roth retirement accounts don’t offer tax advantages right away, but withdrawals from these accounts are tax-free.
Year 3: Protect what you’ve built
As you get closer to retirement, it pays to be defensive with your portfolio. Opting for lower-risk assets that grow steadily over time may result in lower returns, but with these types of assets, you’ll ideally have more insulation during market downturns.
Investors can buy high-yield, low-volatility dividend stocks to generate cash flow or opt for a mutual fund or exchange-traded funds (ETFs) that include a basket of those stocks.
Younger investors should generally be more aggressive with their portfolios since they have more time to weather economic uncertainty. But at this stage in the five-year plan, you will only have two years left until you plan to retire and start withdrawing from your portfolio.
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Year 4: Budget like a retiree
Year four is a good time to test drive your retirement budget to see if it is feasible. (You should still contribute to your retirement accounts and put additional money into other investments during this year at the same, if you can.)
Envision what your retirement lifestyle looks like — including any travel or new hobbies — and calculate your monthly costs. Then, spend according to this plan throughout the year to determine if your budget hits the mark or if you need to expand it. A higher budget, of course, will require more money in your portfolio before you retire.
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Year 5: Finalize and launch
After spending four years growing your portfolio and testing your retirement budget, the final year has arrived. You will have to calculate how much you'll have to pay for health care and figure out how you will manage that cost. But at this point, you may also want to start receiving Social Security payouts, depending on your age.
If retirement feels like too big a step for your finances, you can consider semi-retirement. Working 20 hours per week or less still lets you make some extra money, but you will have more time to focus on loved ones, hobbies and other important areas of your life.