A retirement plan is just that — a plan. It can be hard to really know if it’s going to carry you sufficiently through actual retirement until you get there.
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What if you could, however give your retirement plan a preview before you actually arrive? Technically, you can; it’s called a “stress test.” Finance experts explain how to do it.
Stress testing your retirement plan is a way of determining how your retirement savings will behave during a down market after you retire, according to David Kanani, finance expert and president of Kanani Advisory Group.
“It will help to see whether you are taking more risk than you should, or if you might need more growth in your portfolio to meet your needs.”
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For retirees, a stress test could mean checking whether their income streams, investment strategy or withdrawal rate would still work if the economy takes a downward turn, according to Tom Buckingham, chief growth officer at Nassau Financial Group.
“It’s a shift from hoping for the best to preparing for the unexpected — and then building a plan that’s resilient enough to adapt,” he said. A proper stress testing of your portfolio should indicate whether you are taking on too much risk or if you don’t have enough equities for growth, Kanani pointed out.
The biggest risk to any retirement savings that’s invested in the market is taking on too much risk, Kanani said. A stress test should help you see how well diversified your portfolio is — and will be — by retirement.
“A well-balanced portfolio that includes stocks and fixed products such as bonds or fixed annuities should help guard against the pressures of inflation and high interest rates,” Kanani said.
If most of your savings are stored in cash in a bank or if your retirement income is dependent on fixed income sources, then stock market risk isn’t your biggest concern — inflation is, Kanani added.
“Fixed income sources that will only pay a certain amount will lose value over time as inflation rises. The same is true of money sitting in a traditional bank account; they rarely earn enough interest to offset inflation,” Kanani said.
As much as a stress test is a financial test, it’s also an attitude and lifestyle review, according to Dr. Stephan Shipe, Ph.D., CFA, CFP and founder of Scholar Financial Advising and a finance professor at Wake Forest University.
