I have 2 401K’s totaling 377,000 dollars, 100,000 in a CD paying 5%, 30,000 in checking and 17,000 in savings, 20,000 in stocks, 9,000 in crypto. My debt is 5,000 dollars and I’m 71 and retired at 70. Would it be wise if I started to take 401K disbursments and at what percentage and time frame? Home is paid off.
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Hi-
Yes, Congrats on your retirement!
The biggest issue most retirees face is that they have to switch from Saving and building up their investments to now utilizing the funds they built up to support themselves. Or:
You’ve worked hard for your money, now you need to get your Money working for you!
Please consider is consolidating the two 401ks into one IRA. It will be easier to manage, give you some more investment options, update your beneficiary, and have one account to take Required minimum distributions from ( which start at age 72).
As for taking money now and how much- that depends- More on your goals, your concerns. Every situation is different so it is hard to give a specific recommendation.
-Paul Doak
206-774-0262
Good morning and congrats on retirement! Huge win for you. It’s going to be difficult to give an answer based on the information you’ve shared. You gave us an idea on your balance sheet, but we have no idea what cash flow looks like. I think it would be helpful for you to go through an income and expense list to give you an idea what monthly income needs to look like in order to cover the lifestyle expenses you desire in retirement. Start here:
Income Sources:
- Social Security
- Non-401(k) Pension, if applicable
- Income (dividends and interest) produce by the assets you listed
Expenses (household budget):
- Utilities
- Taxes
- Insurance: homeowners, auto, medical, etc.
- Dining & Entertainment
- Groceries & personal supplies
- Travel & Transportation
- Pets
- Subscriptions
- Anything else you routine spend on
Going through the budgeting exercise above will shed light on where and how you’re spending. From there, you can back into what kind of income you need your portfolio to produce and this will help answer your question. If you need $2,000 for example, then you’d need to structure your portfolio allocation to produce that kind of income/return. It would then beg the question of whether it’s a type of return that’s sustainable based on your life expectancy and tolerance for risk within the markets. Said another way, completely hypothetical and I’m making this up….if the income you need is 7% of your total portfolio but your allocation is likely to only produce 4%, then you run the risk of running out of money. Again, just hypothetical here…just wanted you to get a little insight into how we financial planners would address your question.