For many people, retirement holds a mixture of feelings; relief, excitement, and apprehension being very common. Letting go of the 9 to 5 job is wonderful. But without a significant steady income, how do I ensure safe use of my money? Is there any way to make my savings grow? Is investing after retirement out of the question?

There are two things here that need to be addressed. First: keeping your money safe and secure. After that, you can think about investment options. Some tips for saving money include taking advantage of every senior discount possible, looking for part time jobs that won’t harm your social security, minimizing life insurance, and make sure you’re not paying unnecessary fees and charges on any bank accounts. One piece of very sound advice is to use your retirement funds and savings in a tax savvy way. For regular expenses, try to withdraw from non retirement savings (like CD’s and money market accounts), since you’ve already paid taxes on them. Rolling your IRA account and 401(k) into a single annuity will pay a monthly income, and when your other savings are depleted, you’ll have what to feed from.

The more exciting question is about investment after retirement. Don’t get your blood pressure up, however. Most financial advisors recommend conservative investing after retirement, since you don’t have the same luxury of making up lost money with a typical high paying job. Stable investments after retirement include bonds, certificates of deposit (CD’s) and money market accounts. They don’t offer high annual percentage yield (APY), but they are more secure. In retirement, this is more advisory than giving in to the temptation of putting a large retirement savings into a risky investment that might offer a high yield in a short time. Because it might not. You might lose it.

If you can’t fight the urge for something more speedily lucrative, you can consider things like blue chip stocks (investments that pay dividends), or conservative mutual funds. There is no guarantee that you’ll make money, and you might lose. But if there is growth, it will usually be larger.

The decision is yours. Enjoy the prospects!

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