How To Build A Retirement Investment Portfolio

Retiring should mean living a comfortable life when you decide to finally quit working or when you’re too old to work. To achieve this lifestyle, you must have a good retirement investment portfolio in place early on. This means that you have investments placed in a ‘basket’ or portfolio that develops over time to provide you a stream of income during your post-work years. 

Benefits Of A Retirement Portfolio

If done right, your retirement investment portfolio can make your retirement days worry-free and stable. You won’t have to worry about where to get money to provide for your needs or pay for your bills. The profits you receive from your investment may supplement your monthly Social Security benefits. 

Most importantly, a diversified retirement investment portfolio will protect you from the volatility of the market. If you have a number of investments, you can have others to balance your profits when one of them drops in value due to different forces in the market. 

Ways To Do The Right Investments For Retirement

As mentioned, you have to diversify your retirement investment portfolio to ensure protection against market crashes. That way, you can still comfortably live during your retirement days because not all of your assets are in one investment. Thus, you may want to consider doing the following to build your retirement investment portfolio: 

1. Invest in a Gold IRA

Although you can invest in cash equivalents, bonds, and stocks, it’s also a good idea to add gold and silver-backed IRA to your current portfolio. To start an Individual Retirement Account or IRA for your precious metals, you may need to hire a custodian to store and manage your investments on your behalf. 

After having an approved depository, you may start buying actual precious metals like palladium, platinum, silver, or gold for your stockpile. Then, you have to transfer them to your depository so your custodian can account for them. 

Moreover, before investing in gold, you must have a specified time horizon and risk tolerance to match your investment portfolio. This means you should have an idea until when you’re willing to be committed to your investments along with being able to weather market forces at play. Not only that, but you should also make sure that you have the right financial plan when acquiring precious metals. This means you should have extra funds for other types of investment vehicles. 

2. Have A Cash Reserve Amounting To A Year Of Expenses

Likewise, it may help if you also have savings amounting to your projected annual expenses. This shouldn’t include the regular income you get from other sources such as annuities, pensions, rentals, and the like. 

Thus, you may have to invest in a liquid and relatively secure account like a short-term certificate of deposit, money market fund, or interest-bearing bank account. By having this ‘cash on hand’ or savings, you don’t have to worry about your monthly paycheck or market crashes. This will also prevent you from taking out personal loans in the future because you have no means to sustain your needs.

Then, when you use this cash for your expenses, ensure that you replenish it from the gains you get from your other sources of investment. That way, you can again save funds for the next year of your retirement days while still earning from your other investment vehicles. 

3. Invest In Income Producing Closed-End Funds

If you have more funds to spare, you may want to try investing in different initial public offerings or IPOs from companies selling shares as a closed-end fund. They then open the shares for trading when they’ve accumulated enough funds to buy securities.

With this type of investment, you can receive profits through the return of principal, dividends, or interests, whether quarterly or monthly. But depending on the company’s IPO, you may also receive bonds or stocks in exchange for your investment. Thus, you have to understand what the company’s offering before investing. 

Some companies may even use some of the securities to acquire more income-producing securities making your dividend or profits higher. However, this involves a more significant risk because your closed-end funds become more volatile to possible market changes. 

4. Don’t Forget Real Estate Investment

Another investment vehicle that usually goes up in value over time is properties or real estate. Thus, making it a perfect hedge against inflation while having potential higher returns. If you plan to diversify your retirement investment portfolio, delving into real estate is a good strategy. 

There are many ways you can earn profits from your real estate investment now and when you retire, and here are some of them:

• Buy Your Own Home
  One way to treat your home as an investment is to make use of its equity to provide for your retirement needs like medication from cancer and other illnesses needing long-term care. Or, if you plan to retire in senior home care, you can use your own home to generate some income by selling or renting it out. It may cost you a lot, but it may outweigh your retirement needs while you have a place you call home during these times. 
• Flip A Property
  Another way to build your retirement investment portfolio through real estate is to buy a fixer-upper. One can then improve it and sell it for a profit. Many are said to have very successful feats purchasing a worn-out or unrepaired property, then developing or repairing it so you can sell it at a much higher price. 
• Rent Out Properties
  As mentioned, you can also rent out properties aside from selling them. Thus, you may want to purchase a residential or commercial property so you can rent it out to various people who may lease them for their intended purpose. With such, you can have a source of regular passive income from your renters’ monthly fees. 

5. Buy Bonds

You may also want to consider buying bonds as these can give you a return on your investment and interest. This type of retirement investment is loaning your money to your municipality, a corporation, or government. Bonds are believed to provide you a steady retirement income through the yield or interest from the amount you have invested early on. 

When finding the right bonds, you may have to check the borrower’s ability to return your principal and its yields. It’d be best if you also consider whether to get long-term, mid-term, or short-term yields. Each type has different interest rates, choose one that complements your retirement goals. 

Conclusion

You may think that your Social Security benefits may be enough to get you through retirement, but in reality, you may need more than that. As years pass by, inflation decreases the monetary value of your money. Thus, your retirement needs may have increased, which your benefits can’t pay for. You can prevent this by building your retirement investment portfolio starting now.