Retirement guidance

If you’re planning or hoping to retire within, say, a decade, there are some actions you might want to take to ensure that your golden years are as shiny as possible.

If you’re worried that you’re way behind in saving for retirement, know that you probably still have time to bulk up your nest egg. You may want to sock away as much as possible each year — and perhaps even work a few more years than you’d planned to. If you can save and invest $10,000 per year for 10 years and it grows at an annual average of 6 percent, you’ll amass close to $140,000. It’s not a king’s ransom, but it will be helpful. After all, your investments are going to have to support you, significantly or completely, during retirement.

If you’re within 10 years of retirement, consider cutting back on stocks and adding some bonds to your portfolio. Stocks do tend to feature much higher returns than bonds, but they can be volatile, and you don’t want a market crash just before you retire.

If you don’t expect much or any pension income, consider creating your own pension-like income via immediate or deferred fixed annuities from highly rated insurance companies. Avoid index annuities and variable annuities, though, as they can have some major downsides, such as steep fees. Know that annuities generally offer higher payouts in times of higher interest rates, so you may want to plan to buy later.

Dividend income is another good choice. Park a significant chunk of your portfolio in at least a handful of healthy and growing dividend-paying stocks, and you can enjoy regular income along with a good chance of stockprice appreciation. If you have $200,000 in stocks with an average dividend yield of 4 percent, you’re looking at $8,000 in annual income.

It’s well worth consulting a financial professional for advice, too. There’s a good chance they’ll save you much more than they cost you. You can look up feeonly financial advisers at NAPFA.org.