At what age did you/will you start being more conservative in your investments?

RockyMtNole

Heisman
Jul 1, 2025
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Curious to hear from people have been through that and what would you do differently, if anything?

And those younger, what are your plans?
 

Hydro2.0

All-Conference
Jun 25, 2018
1,683
4,305
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I’m 40 and I’m still going full send with primarily equities. The RoR Over the last few 5-6 years have been impressive. Just keep it as is until later 40
 
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hawkeyetraveler

Heisman
Aug 10, 2010
5,528
22,354
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Around 50 I worked with my investment advisor to rebalance a bit. Our goal is to get S&P500 level returns without the equity risks. Then a year later I stepped away from corporate America and did a bit more rebalancing into dividend heavy equities.

My moves were designed to create some additional guaranteed income while slightly lowering my risk profile. This has allowed me to live my lifestyle without having to have a full time corporate gig or sell assets to make ends meet. So far so good, but many years to go.
 
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Dec 4, 2001
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Curious to hear from people have been through that and what would you do differently, if anything?

And those younger, what are your plans?
I’m 52 and hope I can pull the ripcord before 60. My plan is to put enough in high dividend funds to live off the dividends for many years if not in perpetuity, and let the rest ride on the s&p 500 for growth. The timing of that depends on a few different factors including potential inheritance. If no inheritance, will probably start shifting a couple of years out from retirement, depending on the balance and market conditions.
 

Hydro2.0

All-Conference
Jun 25, 2018
1,683
4,305
113
I’m 52 and hope I can pull the ripcord before 60. My plan is to put enough in high dividend funds to live off the dividends for many years if not in perpetuity, and let the rest ride on the s&p 500 for growth. The timing of that depends on a few different factors including potential inheritance. If no inheritance, will probably start shifting a couple of years out from retirement, depending on the balance and market conditions.
Name of high dividend funds?
 
Dec 4, 2001
4,854
15,612
113
Name of high dividend funds?
I know some here don’t like managed closed-end investment funds, but I’ve had some amount of Liberty All-Star Equity Fund (NYSE: USA) over the years, and that is what I will probably go with. It pays about 10% out per year of its net asset value. The idea of it for me would be that I don’t care so much if it goes below $5 a share or above $8, because I don’t intend to sell the shares, god willing. Assuming I can keep at least treading water with the dividends, the rest of my funds will be geared for growth in the s&p.
 
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lucas80

Heisman
Jan 30, 2008
12,947
30,480
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Regular folks who are on a regular work/life path, early to mid 50s you need to start pushing into safer investments. I went to a simple 70/30 blend with a higher weight in foreign funds for my 401k. Mrs Lucas went 60/40, and they both get good returns. We took my inherited accounts and have pushed it almost entirely into ETFs to smooth out tax implications. Yeah, we're missing out a little while things are zesty, but zero regrets. It was time to balance and smooth things out. And, as the nest empties because we sent zero debt for college with the kids were able to put more away each month right now.
Back stopping our portfolio is the farmland and rental income Mrs. Lucas inherited. So, we're lucky in that respect to have something like that as an asset, and providing income.