About 2 weeks ago the Wall Street Journal published an excellent article about protecting and boosting your portfolio. It was written by Glenn Ruffenach and covered some very sensible ways to play the market while minimizing the downside. With the Dow struggling to trade in a range of 9700 to 10,700 the timing of trades can be critical. The author recommended one or two of the below methods but, I recommend all of them to some degree. An exposure to them all gives you a good amount of flexibility as times change.
First, Look for companies paying dividends as well as increasing them. Consider a mutual funds that focuses on dividend paying companies as well as Dow stocks paying dividends of 3% or more.
Second, Consider downsizing your house. If you are in a similar situation as I am and have a large house with just myself and my wife living in it, the costs of maintaining it (including taxes - not including mortgage) may be $10,000 or more per year. Just to generate that income from your retirement fund, you will need around $250,000 in savings ( based on a 4% withdrawal per year).
Third, invest in Treasury inflation protected securities (TIPS) or Series 1 savings bonds. I personally lean toward a TIPS mutual fund especially due to the massive debt the US is experiencing.
Fourth, Take care of yourself and maintain a good health plan. A person without adequate insurance may find their saving eaten up very quickly if they become ill
0 comments:
Post a Comment