You have saved and invested throughout your career so that you can have a comfortable retirement. Once you retire, the way you interact with your portfolio and what you need from it change.
As a retiree, you'll be taking money out instead of contributing money to your investments. That makes it incredibly important for you to actually have the money available when you need it. Market fluctuations become harder to stomach if you must sell investments to cover your costs of living.
Also, instead of relying on raises from work to fight inflation, your portfolio must play that role. And if you're looking forward to a long retirement, your investments must still provide long-term growth.
Those priorities are different from those you had when you were working, and your money must behave differently when it is feeding you than when you were feeding it.
In the slideshow below, you will learn about an investing strategy called a "laddered portfolio" that uses the strengths of stocks, bonds, and cash to help balance the risks and needs you face as a retiree.
