Money Milestones: Your 70s is not the time to wind down retirement savings
Kathy Stack knows the importance of maintaining her retirement savings in her 70s: she’s 72, battling Alzheimer’s disease and took care of her sick husband before he went to an assisted living facility before he died.
Her husband had a pension, but it wasn’t going to get them very far, she said. Her doctor told her four years ago she would have full-blown Alzheimer’s in five years, and she is working with a financial adviser to monitor her investment accounts and find long-term care insurance. Thankfully, she has enough saved where she can donate to some of her favorite charities on the side and invest in 529 plans for her grandchildren’s future education, but she sees friends who have not planned as well, and she worries for them.
“I can’t fix it for them,” she said, but she does encourage them to look around for plans and determine where they want to go and what they can afford in the future.
In the 70s, which is typically considered a time when people decumulate or spend down their account balances, it’s hard to accumulate enough assets to last the next decade (or three), but it’s a good time to maintain the savings already acquired and look for ways to mitigate extra expenses. People may not yet have medical burdens, but that doesn’t mean they won’t come. The risk of increased health costs rises each year, the prices for health care itself are rising: An American couple retiring in 2017 should expect to spend $275,000 in health care costs throughout retirement, up 6% since last year alone, and expected to keep climbing.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/money-milestonesyour-70s-is-not-the-time-to-wind-down-retirement-savings-2017-10-16