A question came in recently from someone that had received a little financial advice from their neighbor about moving to cash before retirement.

Thankfully, they reached out to us before making any decisions so we can work through the different reasons why you may or may not follow that advice. On this episode, Eric Hogarth, CFP® will answer this question along with two others on self-insuring and claiming Social Security.

So back to that neighborly advice, which we’re sure was meant well. First thing, be very wary of who you are getting financial direction from. Whether it be friends, family, or the media, always discuss with your financial advisor because something that works for one person is never guaranteed to work for you.

Second, do not try to time the market. If all of these Wall Street analysts and the computer algorithms can’t do it consistently then you won’t be able to either. It might seem like an easy decision to get out and move to cash when you think the market is heading in a bad direction, but missing a good day is often more costly than missing a bad day.

Now, one thing that does hold some merit in this question is that do need to be thinking about shifting gears with your investments before retirement. What worked for you up to this point isn’t often the best strategy heading into retirement. Now that might not mean moving to cash completely, but it will include reassessing your risk.  

The last thing we have to point out about this approach is that you might introduce some unnecessary taxes. If we’re not talking about a retirement account in this scenario, then it could lead to triggering a number of taxable events along the way. So if you’re constantly tinkering with your investments, not only are you possibly losing money and paying fees, but you’re also tacking on to your tax bill.

These are just a few of the things to think about but we’d love to discuss retirement with you further. The best place to begin is by taking advantage of our Money Map review process to get that process started.

0:23 – Mailbag question about moving to cash  

3:11 – Mailbag question on self-insuring

5:00 – Mailbag question on claiming Social Security

7:23 – Building a plan for you

Thanks for listening to this episode. We’ll be back again next week for another show.