I don’t want to lose money! What should I do?

 

I have never heard anyone say they want to lose money!

As we move closer to retirement and beyond, losing money becomes a bigger concern for most people, you are not alone!

Many retirees and those preparing to retire, tell us that they would rather give up a 20% gain than take a 20% loss.

I believe this is hardwired into us.

It stems from the fact that we know when we stop working, we will not be adding to our accounts, so the opportunity to make money back is lost. Plus, we may need to use those accounts for retirement income, and losing money means possibly losing income.

3 Things You Can Do TO Protect Your Accounts

Diversify with the Colors of Money

First, I would recommend using the colors of money as a guide to choosing the right investment mix.

There are three main goals we have when investing money, safety, liquidity, and growth. No magic investment meets all those goals completely.

Yellow money is safe and liquid but provides very little growth.

Red money is liquid (most of the time) and provides growth, but there is no safety.

Green money sits in the middle with safety (principle protection), but it has limited liquidity at least early on and limited growth potential (but also not subject to market losses).

Having the right mix of these colors of investments is one of the first things you can do to protect your accounts.

We often refer to the rule of 100 which is simply subtracting your age from 100 and having that percent in red money and the rest in green, with a sliver in yellow, too much in yellow and you take another risk, that is purchasing power risk (not keeping up to inflation).

(Check out our upcoming Blogs or past Blogs for more on each color of money!)

Get a Risk Assessment on your Portfolio

This report is more than a snapshot of your portfolio, it’s analysis the funds in your portfolio and can give you a probability of upside and downside return potential.

Everyone in or nearing retirement should have an updated risk assessment done on a regular basis and especially now when we are still at all-time market highs.

Check to See If Your Risk Assessment Matches Your Personal Benchmark

Stay tuned for the 3 M’s of Money Management for more on this or check out our post on Risks and Protecting Retirement Income!

Let this volatility be a reality check for you and be sure you are ready!

For the Video – Click HERE.

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Michelle Bertram and Beverly Bertram are financial advisors living in Mineral Point WI and serving the surrounding communities. Michelle Bertram does financial planning for retirees along with business consulting. Beverly Bertram specializes in retirement planning and income planning for her clients. Michelle Bertram and Beverly Bertram are authors of the book, Creating You DREAM Retirement and creators of the DREAM Retirement Process. Serving Madison WI, Verona WI, Mount Horeb WI, Barneveld WI, Dodgeville WI, Dubuque IA, Platteville WI, Lancaster WI, Cuba City WI, Fennimore WI, Darlington WI, Monroe WI, Spring Green WI, Black Earth WI and beyond