Hi Jan,
Bonds mean something different once you stop working. During your accumulation years, they're primarily a stabilizer there to reduce volatility and smooth the ride while your portfolio grows. That role is generally enough when the portfolio's main job is still building wealth.
Retirement changes the equation. Once paychecks stop and withdrawals begin, bonds may need to do something more precise: deliver cash at a specific time to meet a specific need. That shift is where the difference between a bond fund, a traditional bond ladder, and a retirement income bond ladder starts to matter.
This week's article walks through those distinctions and explains how TIPS ladders function as a useful retirement income benchmark what they can show you, what risks they leave on the table, and how to think about giving each part of your portfolio a defined role in your income plan.
| | | | How the Role of Bonds Changes in Retirement During your working years, bonds are primarily used as a portfolio stabilizer. They can help dampen volatility, provide income, and reduce the impact of stock market declines. During the accumulation years, that role is generally enough. The portfolio’s primary job is still growth, and bonds are there to make the ride more manageable.
By Retirement Researcher | | | | Can TIPS Help Manage Inflation in Retirement? Inflation is one of the few retirement risks that can build gradually and do real damage before retirees fully recognize its impact. It does not arrive all at once. Instead, it shows up gradually in higher grocery bills, rising insurance premiums, and the slow realization that the same lifestyle costs more each year than expected. Because income is often less flexible after retirement, adjusting to these rising costs can be difficult. Even modest inflation can become meaningful when it compounds over a retirement that may last 25 or 30 years.
By McLean Asset Management
| | | | Is 4.7% the New Safe Withdrawal Rate?
In this live Q&A episode, we work through what the current safe withdrawal rate actually looks like using a 30-year TIPS ladder as the baseline (the answer right now: about 4.7%), and take listener questions on retirement income bond ladders versus bond funds, Roth conversion strategy, and how effective marginal tax rate targets work in practice.
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