Financial Answer Center

When you are within five years of retirement, you need to take a hard look at your investment strategy. Yes, it is time to get more conservative, but one of the biggest mistakes you can make is being too conservative.

You still have many years left in retirement, so your portfolio must keep pace with inflation. If your portfolio is too conservative, you will expose yourself to inflation risk. You'll need some growth-oriented investments in your portfolio to counter inflation, in addition to income-producing investments. As a result, your focus will now be shifting from primarily growth investments to investments that generate both growth and income.

Your goal is also to have less volatility in your portfolio. Meeting the goals of growth and income and less volatility may require that you gradually reposition your current holdings.

IMPORTANT NOTE: In addition to your investment holdings, you should establish an emergency fund of approximately three to six months of living expenses.

IMPORTANT NOTE: If you are within five years of retirement, you may need to adopt a temporary investing strategy for your qualified plan assets. See the section Basic Investing Strategies.

One of the goals of your investment strategy will be to generate monthly income. It will be helpful to establish specific retirement investment goals, and to actively manage your retirement investments. You should also evaluate the impact of capital gains tax rates on your investments.