Thursday, December 3, 2009

Retirement Planning

Blogpal 444express had a few interesting posts on her personal stock transactions that got me to thinking. Personally I don't invest in individual stocks for several reasons, but the main reason is because I'm just too lazy to do so. Unlike 444express, I am not a very diligent person when it comes to watching and studying stocks and their movements daily, weekly, or heck, even annually. I'm a mutual fund kind of girl ... give me a little of everything in one swoop.

My laziness doesn't just stop with individual stocks, I don't even watch my mutual funds ... at all, if ever, well maybe annually when I'm calculating my net worth for the year. The only retirement account that I review quarterly is my ROTH, and that's because the contributions are mine at any time, without any penalty or taxes - so in essence, I kind of see my ROTH as a glorified savings account, that I can't touch unless the world has turned upside down. As for the 401K accounts that were rolled over into a traditional IRA, I don't take one measly look at them. Hmm, that doesn't sound too responsible, huh?

Quite frankly I'm not too concerned about how they perform. I have yet to get it into my head that my "retirement" should be based on the amount of money I saved through retirement vehicles invested in paper assets. I'm more concerned with paying off my mortgage and being completely debt free. I know medical costs can be a beast on one's retirement savings so that's one reason why I was making maximum contributions to my HSA account every year. With socialized medicine on the horizon, who knows what we will need to do to address medical care in those golden years. I'll continue to maximize my HSA and adjust as necessary.

As for retirement planning, here are my initiatives (in order of priority):
  • Continue building and growing current business
  • Continue to build HSA account (as long as it makes sense to do so)
  • Continue investing in ROTH IRA
  • Payoff mortgage (never have another one again)
  • Invest in other businesses (currently developing the framework)
  • Invest in real estate
  • Invest in paper assets (i.e., stocks and bonds)
Now that's diversification;-). How are you planning for "retirement?"

2 comments:

Yum Yucky said...

OH gosh. The title made me skip right to the comments. I so need to face retirement planning and get more agressive.

Okay, okay! I'll read the post! (but I'm scared)

Shtinkykat said...

I'm there with you, MMC. I'm less concerned about the performance and am more focused on how much I contribute and whether my asset allocation is appropriate for my current stage in life.

My retirement planning consists of:
1.) 401k - biggest source
2.) Roth IRA - I contribute (albeit very little) to my Roth since I want a source of income in retirement that is tax free. I'm trying to load my Roth with dividend yielding assets so I can have a regular stream of passive income.
3.) Savings Bonds (I-Bonds) ladder - another tax advantaged stream of income in retirement.

Once I pay off my student loans, I'm hoping to create a CD ladder and of course, to buy a home that I will own free and clear before I'm 55. :-D