5 Best Investment Strategies for Retirement

October 9, 2023

While saving for your retirement is essential, putting money aside may not be enough to achieve your goals.

Strategic investment is critical in a successful retirement plan.

Retirement planning requires meticulous planning, and it’s never too late to start.

The best retirement investment depends on your objectives and income.

Mostly, retirement plans evolve continuously to reflect your financial position and goals.

Here are a few investment strategies to safeguard your retirement.

1. Defined Contribution Plans

Since their introduction, DC plans have dominated the retirement investment landscape.

At least 92% of companies prefer defined contribution plans instead of traditional pensions.

Of all the defined contribution plans, the 401(k) plan is the most common among employers.

The 403(b) plan is similarly structured but only offered to staff in tax-exempt organizations like public schools.

On the other hand, 457(b) plans are available to employees in local and state governments. However, there’s a contribution limit for each plan, depending on your age.

Many defined contribution plans offer Roth versions where you make after-tax contributions, but withdrawals at retirement are tax-free.

The Roth plan can be perfect if your retirement tax rate is higher than what you’re paying when contributing.

2. Traditional Pension Plans

Most conventional pensions are a form of defined benefit plan.

They’re among the top plans with simple management since they require minimal input from employees.

Pensions are funded by employees and are designed to offer fixed monthly benefits after retirement. However, availability is dwindling since few organizations support the plans.

Defined benefit plans require employers to fund your retirement investment plan.

Typically, pension payments extend throughout your life and usually replace a portion of your salary after retirement.

Pension plans use a fixed formula to calculate the benefits based on your years of service and eligible benefits.

The higher your salary, the higher your pension benefits after retirement.

3. Guaranteed Income Annuities

Employers seldom provide guaranteed income annuities.

However, you can buy various annuities to create a robust retirement strategy. Ideally, you can invest a lump sum at retirement and get an annuity that pays monthly benefits for life.

However, most people don’t like the idea of trading a huge lump sum at retirement.

Instead, deferred income annuities are more popular since contributions are spread evenly.

For instance, you can start contributing a few years before retirement.

This means that each contribution increases your monthly benefits once you retire.

Guaranteed income annuities provide a great avenue for creating a custom retirement plan depending on your financial obligations and lifestyle.

You can acquire a guaranteed annuity plan on an after-tax basis, but you’ll still owe tax on your earnings.

Alternatively, you can choose upfront tax deductions, but the annuity will be taxable upon withdrawal.

4. Cash Balance Plans

A cash balance plan is a type of defined benefit. Instead of substituting a percentage of your salary, the providers offer hypothetical account balances that are based on investment credits and contribution credits.

For instance, organizations can offer a contribution credit of a certain percentage coupled with a defined percentage of investment credit.

However, investment credits are not based on your contribution.

For instance, if your plan earns more than the promised annual return, the employer may decrease the average contribution.

Notably, most organizations seeking to eliminate traditional pension plans switch to cash balance plans since they offer more control over the costs, unlike most pension plans.

5. IRA Plans

An IRA is an invaluable strategy that helps workers build their retirement funds. The maximum contribution you can contribute depends on your age, where older employees are eligible to contribute more.

Traditional IRA plans have tax advantages that offer huge tax breaks when saving for your retirement.

Any employee can contribute using pre-tax earnings, meaning the contributions are non-taxable.

The plan supports tax-free growth on your contributions until you decide to withdraw the funds. However, early withdrawals may attract higher taxes and penalties.

Roth IRAs may be a newer type of conventional IRAs, but they still offer great tax benefits. The contributions are remitted after tax deductions, meaning your earnings are tax-free upon maturity or retirement.

On the other hand, rollover IRAs come into play when you move retirement funds from a different plan to a new IRA account. You can transfer your money to Oxford Gold Group and enjoy the tax benefits. There are zero limits on the funds you can move into a rollover IRA.