Retirement Plan

For many people who are drawing on their savings to fund current retirement, the safest route often makes the most sense. This means being invested in T-bills and bonds which are certain not to lose value. However, like all issues in investing, there are some drawbacks to the safest approach.
Bond interest is taxed fully as income. For investments outside of tax-sheltered retirement plans, investors can often achieve greater after-tax income, with a minor amount of extra risk, by owning preferred shares of large established companies. The dividend interest is taxed at an approximate 35% rate for top income earners, compared to around 50% for interest income. This can mean a considerable tax saving at all income levels. People owning bonds are often at a disadvantage due to inflation. The amount of interest from bonds may be sufficient for current expenses, but will it be enough in 10 or 15 years when expenses are higher? A sound strategy, then, for people who are just retired and are facing another 20 or more years of life expectancy, would be to have at least some portion of their investments in assets that keep up to inflation. For some, the ownership of their home or other real estate may be enough. For others, it may be wise to have some ownership of stocks, in order to achieve the higher returns over time.
For retired people invested in stocks via mutual funds, a systematic withdrawal plan could work well as an alternative to owning bonds. Such a plan would allow the withdrawal of funds on a monthly or annual basis, much like receiving interest from a bond. However, there are two important benefits: (1) the amount withdrawn in the early years would be treated for the most part as return of capital, and therefore not taxed; and (2) if the rate of withdrawal is less than the rate of return achieved by the mutual fund, then the amount invested would continue to grow over time. Instead of, or in addition to, investing in bonds, using a systematic withdrawal plan connected to an equity mutual fund could well allow a retired person a higher after-tax income as well as inflation protection.