Key Takeaways
- There’s no universal rule that investors in their 50s should start investing in bonds—asset allocation should be driven by an individualized financial plan.
- When deciding on your bond allocation, consider how soon you’ll need your money.
- Before you enter retirement, consider boosting your bond allocation and following a bucketing strategy to avoid selling stocks during market downturns.
If you’re in your 50s, you may be nearing retirement but still have a few years in the workforce.
You might consider making your portfolio more conservative as you get older, increasing your allocation to fixed income. However, just because you’re getting closer to retirement doesn’t necessarily mean you need to add bonds to your portfolio.
Scott Bishop—a certified financial planner (CFP) and co-founder of Presidio Wealth Partners—notes that overreliance on rules of thumb, like subtracting your age from 100 to determine your fixed income allocation, can be problematic, since they don’t account for your liquidity, growth, and stability needs.
What This Means For You
Don’t assume that you need to include fixed income in your portfolio just because you’re an older investor. In fact, economist James Choi suggests that investors stay 100% in stocks for “much of their working life.” Ultimately, your allocation to bonds depends on when you’ll need your money, your investment goals and time horizon.
“Part of the issue I have with the financial services industry is how much people love rules,” said Bishop, pointing out that risk tolerance profiles can also be flawed. “People tend to have a more positive perception of the market after good years.”
The Rules May Not Apply To Your Situation
Flavio Landivar, a senior financial advisor at Evensky & Katz / Foldes Wealth Management, distinguishes between ‘risk tolerance’ and ‘risk requirement.’ He describes ‘risk requirement’ as the risk someone may need to tolerate to achieve their financial goals.
“There shouldn’t be a rule of thumb that as you age, your portfolio becomes more conservative,” said Landivar. “Rather, you should have your [financial] plan dictate what that asset allocation would be.”
As for figuring out the ideal bond allocation, Bishop suggests that pre-retirees consider when they’ll need money.
“The real question isn’t whether someone is over 50. It’s how dependent they are on their portfolio for near-term income,” said Bishop.
He suggests that people boost their allocation of fixed income and cash two to three years ahead of retirement to mitigate sequence-of-returns risk—the risk of having to sell your stocks during a down market at the beginning of retirement, leaving you with a smaller nest egg down the line.
Avoid Selling During a Selloff
Bishop said he is a fan of the ‘bucketing strategy,’ which involves separating your money into three buckets:
- Bucket 1 (cash): high-yield savings accounts, money market funds, and money market accounts.
- Bucket 2 (low-risk investments): CDs, Treasurys, bond exchange-traded funds, and bond ladders.
- Bucket 3 (long-term investments): stocks and alternatives like private equity.
With this strategy, you might keep at least one year’s worth of expenses in cash, four years in low-risk investments, and more than eight in long-term investments, according to Charles Schwab.
By using the bucket strategy, you reduce the risk of having to sell declining assets during a bear market, since you can rely on income from your cash accounts or maturing CDs and bonds instead.
As far as which bonds to invest in, Landivar advises investors to steer clear of high-yield bonds, which are also high risk, and recommends Treasurys and corporate bonds instead. He also likes bond ladders, because they’re made with bonds of different maturities and provide diversification.
“Start with high-quality, investment-grade bonds. The bond portion shouldn’t be where you take on more uncertainty or chase yield with lower-quality bonds,” said Landivar.