Is Your Retirement Portfolio Too Risky? How To Tell Before It Is Too Late

There is a difference between a 30% market drop at 42 and the same drop at 62. At 42, you have time to recover. At 62, every dollar you lose is a dollar that will not be working for you in retirement.

This is called sequence-of-return risk. If the market falls early in your retirement, your portfolio never fully recovers because you are withdrawing money while the balance is down. The impact can be devastating.

Here is a simple check: if your portfolio dropped 20% tomorrow, would you still have enough guaranteed income to cover your essential expenses? If the answer is no, you may be carrying more risk than you can afford.

Annuities with principal protection features can act as a shock absorber for the income portion of your plan. By shielding a portion of your savings from market losses, you reduce the risk that a bad year early in retirement derails everything.

Rates are still high enough to lock in meaningful guaranteed income. Every month you wait is a month your portfolio stays exposed.