Quora Answer: When I Turn 65 Years of Age, is There Anything Special I Should be Doing with My Mutual Funds?

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “When I turn 65 years of age, is there anything special I should be doing with my mutual funds?”

At this age, I am assuming that you are looking to draw down your investments, and enjoy your retirement.  Firstly, your focus is now wealth protection, no longer wealth accumulation.  This means shifting your weightage towards bonds and less volatile instruments.  You cannot do away entirely with stocks since you do not know when exactly you will die, so you still need to at least make enough to beat the rate of inflation.

Secondly, you need to concentrate on instruments that are more liquid.  This means more funds into money market, and less in 30-year T-bonds, for example.  Also, set aside funds for anticipated increase in medical expenses.  Ideally, this should have been done much earlier.