Retirement withdrawal strategies: 4 ways to help you extend your savings
Author: Siân Killingsworth / 8 Sep 2022
Outliving your retirement savings could put you in a bad situation. Ubiquity CEO + Founder Chad Parks shares his advice with Bankrate on how to prevent this from happening to you!
“The biggest concern people seem to have is running out of money in retirement,” says Chad Parks, founder and CEO of Ubiquity Retirement + Savings in San Francisco. “The first step is to take a look at the amount you want to withdraw from your retirement plan and ask yourself if this is your only source of income in retirement.”
Once you know what your total retirement income will be, Bankrate offers four ways to maximize your savings via strategic withdrawals.
- The 4% Rule is a popular way to withdraw funds in a way that, statistically, reduces the risk of running out of money. In it, retirees withdraw no more than 4% of their total retirement savings in the first year of retirement. In subsequent years, the withdrawal amount is adjusted for inflation.
- In the fixed-dollar strategy, retirees determine how much they need to withdraw each year, and then re-assess that amount every few years. The withdrawal could be lowered in the future to match a lower portfolio value or could be raised if investments have increased in value.
- The total return strategy: Better suited for the risk-takers, with this strategy you remain fully invested as long as possible, notably with long-term growth assets such as stocks. You would withdraw 3-12 months of expenses only and leave the rest in your retirement funds. Then you would tap them again when more is needed.
- The bucket strategy: combines elements of other strategies: leaving money invested in high-return assets for longer periods while allowing you to take out money for short-term needs.
