Sunday, April 19, 2020

Retirement Planning for Downturns

We have had two very painful market downturns since I retired.  The first in 2018 we recovered from and then some.  The current one is a reminder not to panic.  I was down about $300,000 at one point; now only $100,000.  But in addition to the importance of not panicking, another lesson learned.  My Schwab account has a number of stocks paying decent dividends.  By selling mutual funds in my IRA, I reduce available capital and create taxable long-term gains.  I have now reshuffled to pull $400 a month less from my IRA and $400 less from my IRA.  The dividend income in Schwab is already taxable income and there is no loss of invested capital.  Now I deplete my IRA more slowly.

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