First time poster

[ljhilljr]

Hi all, I've been reading this board quite a bit for the last several months and have decided to finally ask a question of you....
I just turned 60 last month and have talked to my company HR folks about retirement. If I retire on 2/1/09, I will have about $950K between my company retirement account and 401K which have been administered by Vanguard. My question is, which Vanguard fund(s) should I put my retirement money into that would offer security at the expense of larger returns? In other words, I'm a chicken and am willing to watch my balance not go up as long as it doesn't go down. Was that a dumb enough explaination?
Thanks for any opinions!

 

[FIREd]

Hi, welcome to the board...

You don't want to see your balance go down at all?

 

[bbbamI]

My question is, which Vanguard fund(s) should I put my retirement money into that would offer security at the expense of larger returns?

I don't have any investments with Vanguard; I use Fidelity. One fund I use for this purpose is a capital preservation and income fund. This year, it has returned 3.6%. Hopefully my other funds (in the long run) will have better returns so that I may keep up with inflation.

BTW, welcome to the forum.

 

[ljhilljr]

Let me clarify....not go down with exception of the money I draw each month.

 

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

Hi all, I've been reading this board quite a bit for the last several months and have decided to finally ask a question of you....
I just turned 60 last month and have talked to my company HR folks about retirement. If I retire on 2/1/09, I will have about $950K between my company retirement account and 401K which have been administered by Vanguard. My question is, which Vanguard fund(s) should I put my retirement money into that would offer security at the expense of larger returns? In other words, I'm a chicken and am willing to watch my balance not go up as long as it doesn't go down. Was that a dumb enough explaination?
Thanks for any opinions!

Welcome and nice going with your retirement savings. If you truly want to take almost no risk, and don't care about returns (meaning you probably won't even keep up with inflation), the money market funds should do it.

You might want to look at the inflation-adjusted TIPs fund where your share price and interest will varie somewhat, but they will track inflation so at least you won't fall behind.

Finally, there are always CDs which can be laddered to last however long you want, and these have FDIC protection.

Presumably your other holdings are diversified into other investments.

 

[FIREd]

If I were to setup a portfolio with very limited or no downside risk I would invest as follows:

Taxable money: VG short term tax exempt fund, high yield savings accounts.
IRA: CD ladder, VG short term treasury fund, VG Prime money market fund, individual treasuries / agency bonds (longer terms, higher interest rate), individual TIPS.

With such a conservative portfolio, you have to try to be as tax-efficient as possible and keep the fees at rock bottom.