#432 - How Do I Inflation-Proof My Retirement?

Does inflation have you worried about retirement? If so, you’re not alone. A couple of listeners are investigating various ways to inflation-proof their retirement. Can you inflation-proof your retirement?

I’ll answer these questions and many more on this episode of Retirement Answer Man. But before we get to our current listener questions we’ll take a look back at a question that was asked earlier this month. I asked you all to help me answer it and today you’ll hear the responses.

“Can you inflation-proof your retirement?”

Listeners’ responses to Wendy’s question

On episode 429, Wendy asked for my thoughts on increasing her savings with the goal of retiring early or whether she and her husband should enjoy life now and travel more given her husband’s recent bout with cancer. After giving my thoughts on the matter, I turned the question over to all of you and I received many responses.

One listener remarked that their 1 million dollar savings wouldn’t be enough to fund an early retirement when considering long-term care and health care costs.

Another listener, Craig, retired early at 62 and regrets not working longer. He feels bored and wishes that he had worked longer while slowing his savings rate.

Joe took 3 months off of work, then started back to work part-time. He reminds us that we don’t have to choose between work and retirement. Retirement doesn’t have to be binary. By working a flexible or limited schedule you can take advantage of pretirement and enjoy the best of both worlds. Retirement isn’t about getting to a date–it’s about making the most of the time you have.

Kate retired at 56 and is bored. She advises planning how you will create your new life and spend your time in retirement.

“By working a flexible or limited schedule you can take advantage of pretirement and enjoy the best of both worlds.”

Choices don’t have to be black and white–find a way to work with the grey areas

While Wendy’s question was posed as a choice between two options, it is important to remember that you can go back and forth between the two. Choices don’t have to be black and white. You can increase your savings a bit while increasing travel and living life to its fullest now. Don’t wait until retirement to enjoy life since no one is promised tomorrow. We must all live for today while doing our best to make the most out of tomorrow.

Listen in to hear Kevin Lyle’s ideas on how to blend work into your retirement plans.

Can you inflation-proof retirement?

Since inflation has continued to rise more and more people are looking for ways to inflation-proof their retirement. Dave is looking at taking a mortgage on his house so that he can buy rental properties and another listener is curious about using gold as an inflation hedge.

A couple of months ago we did a month-long series on inflation in retirement. You can start the first episode of the series here. In episode 423 we explored several inflation-fighting tactics you can use to enhance your retirement strategy. Some of those were I bonds, TIPS, money market funds, and utilizing debt instead of cash to make large purchases.

It is important to understand that no retirement plan is inflation-proof. What you can do is ensure that you have a sound retirement strategy in place before rushing into any major decisions. Walk through your process and see how the choices align with your values and fit into your retirement plan.

“Walk through your process and see how the choices align with your values and fit into your retirement plan.”

OUTLINE OF THIS EPISODE OF THE RETIREMENT ANSWER MAN

PRACTICAL PLANNING SEGMENT

[3:40] Looking back at your responses to Wendy’s question from earlier this month

LISTENER QUESTIONS WITH KEVIN LYLES

[11:27] A blended retirement question

LISTENER QUESTIONS WITH NICHOLE

[20:44] Should Dave take on a mortgage to buy rental properties?
[24:30] Is gold a good way to fight inflation?
[27:55] The 5-year rule and opening of 2 separate Roth IRAs
[29:41] Moving a 401K to a Roth IRA before retirement
[31:43] Should Roy liquidate his stock options into cash and buy a 2nd home?
[35:55] A rule of 55 question
[39:03] Sally wants to consolidate accounts and buy crypto how should she do that/