Clearly there’s a LOT to think about with your 401k. There’s managing it prior to retirement. There’s planning out how much to withdraw every year. This post on 401ks is about managing the 401k AFTER you retire.

I hadn’t really thought about it but, unless you’re planning to just take everything out of your 401k on day one of your retirement (pro tip: don’t do that) then you’ll need to manage it for the rest of your life*. How you do that will be like any other investment: what do you need – growth or stability, or some kind of mix? Like I keep saying, that’s up to you to sort. But here’s what I think.

Conventional wisdom suggests you put an increasingly larger percentage of your investments into bonds as you age. This is based on the not unreasonable assumption that, as you get older, you need stability more than growth. And, as I mentioned in an earlier post, bonds are all about the stability while stocks are all about the growth. I totally get this wisdom and totally understand why folks would follow it.

We’re probably going to stay with a heavier stock mix as we think we’ll need growth for some time. For starters, inflation sucks (see earlier post). Second, we want to keep living the lifestyle we’ve come to enjoy in our employed years. Third, we plan to use a cash reserve (see future post) to cover gaps when the market isn’t doing so hot. And, finally, we will have some in bonds for all the reasons common wisdom suggests.

Only you know what’s right for you. The point of this post is to remind you that managing your 401k doesn’t stop when you quit working. You’ll likely roll your 401k into a generic IRA or some other account that will still require your involvement (or the involvement of “your guy” should you choose that direction). So, like everything in life, things go smoother if you prepare, prepare, prepare

*PS – you may need to hand over management of your IRA/401k to someone if your mental acuity or plain old indifference. In the spirit of “own your plan”, if you have a clear management strategy you can probably hand it off to someone you trust with little concern about its ultimate fate

READ ARTICLE: 401(k) Rollover: How to Roll Over an Old 401(k) – NerdWallet