I’m sure it depends on your situation. If you have a large drop in the market early in your retirement, it has a bigger impact than near the end. This to me implies that one should be more conservative investing wise at the beginning and more aggressive later when you can better afford a large drawdown because your money has had longer to grow. Of course that assumes that you have enough at the beginning to do what you want. You’ll most likely spend more in terms of travel etc early on and more on healthcare later.
Yes investing wisely also depends on where you are in the market cycle too. The last major market correction was in 2000. In just over a year or 2001 the Nasdaq fell 78% (@5200 to 1100!!). We’ve been in a very long bull run so it won’t be surprising if a major correction has begun. The Nasdaq is down over 15% which mostly happened over the last 11 trading days.
Because of current market conditions and my spouse’s age (61), our financial advisor is recommending that H changes his allocation to make it more conservative. I’m 54, and the financial advisor says I can probably keep things the same for at least a few years.
You know the old saying: “bull markets don’t die of old age” Are you expecting a continued correction or a bear market? I don’t believe that we are heading into a recession and bear market.
I am going to let the markets decide if there are bear markets or not. 
What about 2007-2008? That was about a 50% drop.
rosered, like yours, my H is 61 and I am younger. He had been thinking of retiring at 62, but may put it off a bit longer. Near the end of 2014 he pulled out half of his 401k and put it in 2 single premium annuities. I had always been skeptical of annuities, but have felt better about the transaction with all the recent stock market fluctuations. I expect the ups and downs to continue for a while. Between his pension, SS, and the annuity income, we will have enough to live on and can keep the rest of our rather aggressive investments as they are. (At least until there are required distributions down the road).
@mamabear1234, out of curiosity, did H defer the annuities or were they immediate (i.e., SPIA)?
“I am going to let the markets decide if there are bear markets or not.”
So what are you going to do? You’re already retired. Are you hanging in, hedged or other source of income. My recollection is you’re too young to collect SS. It is difficult to figure out a course of action being retired unless there is another income source. I’m sure most here are feeling the heat.
@Doct, I am sure many people are feeling the heat.
Back in 1998, I was talking to a former CEO of a bank located in the northeast.
I told him I don’t think baby boomers are going to be able to rely on stock market returns to fund their retirements.
I haven’t changed my mind.
My opinion,
Most baby boomers are not going to be able to retire based on stock returns in the past. I expect future returns to be lower.
To combat this…
Work longer full or part time…
Save more than you need. The more you save…the less your returns need to be.
Spend less if possible and necessary.
Do not let the politicians screw around with SS and medicare.
For many couples, the present value of ss and medicare combined may be close to $1,000,000.
SS and medicare are the largest assets for a majority of retirees.
If we look at the first few posts in this thread, we see the net worth of average Americans. I have no idea how they are going to make it in retirement.
Are you still selling puts in the stock indexes? Is that working?
I sold some puts in a stock last week and the results aren’t good. 
I am hedged the way @IxnayBob is hedged. I own some bonds and notes. I can lose 50 percent in stocks and still be retired.
I could be wrong. I am doing what I think is right… For me.
I look at future results as a bell curve. Maybe stocks return 5 percent pre-tax…maybe less…maybe more.
I reserve the right to change my mind.
Last year my accounts ranged from 9 - 21% up. It was a very good year for my way of trading. Every time the market came back, I had more than the previous time. This year I’m more nervous I have many puts spreads that I sold to pay for the put spreads I bought. If the market stays better than 20% or so down, I’ll be ok. The longer it stays down the more painful things get. As I mentioned, I have ~ 5 years in the bank. I don’t expect anything to be down that long. Pplus with pensions, ss and a fixed annuity with the state that my wife can get that is yielding 8.5% guaranteed, I think I will be ok. I don’t plan on collecting ss until I’m 66 - next year.
@Doct, you are doing better than I am. I am not going to get those returns. Plus, I don’t have a fixed annuity that yields 8.5 percent.
I don’t trade much anymore. I wish I didn’t trade this year.
The annuity is a pretty good deal except there is no COLA. However my wife will collect little if any of my ss if I die because of some crazy laws that the state has in regards to teachers having pensions larger than ss.
@dstark, re: post #7799,
Not exactly the article that I read before (which I could not locate any more), but this article seems to mention this strategy as well:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304632204579338692467289578
@DocT, you made good points.
People are trashing government workers pensions and they don’t understand how the pensions work.
My next door neighbor is going to get a government pension in 15 years. Sounds good. There is no inflation protection like ss has.
As far as annuities go, unless there is a return principal, the returns are overstated. We have to take this into account when comparing annuities to other products.
The state annuity is guaranteed (maybe not if the state goes bankrupt) for both our lives. What ever is left over, goes to our heirs. It is a good backup but it is a one time deal that can only be done at retirement at the latest, Her pension has a COLA associated with it. I calculated she will get 0 SS when I depart this life. She has accumulated some time to collect ss on her own - $133 per month at 66 years and 4 months.
Sadly, I will be inheriting a smallish sum from my mom and stocks from the company my dad worked most his life. I don’t intend on touching the stock.
I’m not sure what to do with the money. I don’t “need” it, but I also don’t want to blow it. Any suggestions on where to start?
It sounds familiar. Three years ago, I ended up with my father’s company stock. I don’t have it in my accounts but some other place. I really need to organize my holdings better. I also inherited my father’s small IRA which has been more of a hassle than its worth. I thought I told the bank that it was with to send me my RMD every year. After the first year, they didn’t. This year I had to file an amended tax form and am waiting for my fine.
Make certain that you have all this stuff in order even if it is a small sum of money.
I suggest just putting the money in some combination of stock and bond funds, if there is enough to do both.
I’m feeling dumb these days, because I was pretty confident the market was going down, but I increased the amount I had in stocks, just in time to take a the hit. I don’t envision needing the money any time soon, so hopefully the market will comeback. I left everything in the market back in 2008, except for an adjustment because of my age, and it all came back. I’ve always been on the conservative side, but overall I am doing fine. I will get a pension worth between 35 and 40% of my salary, plus Ive been saving for retirement since I started my “professional” career at 22.
