How retirees can cushion themselves against ill-effects of inflation

November 14, 2021 08:55 PM EST | By Ashish
 How retirees can cushion themselves against ill-effects of inflation
Image source: Cozine, Shutterstock.com

Highlights

  • Retirees are generally considered most prone to inflation’s adverse effects since their portfolio income has no inherent inflation adjustment.
  • Furthermore, retired people do not add much to their accounts, which makes returns important to them.
  • Thus, retirement planning around inflation becomes important.

 A successful retirement is an onerous task since it requires detailed preparations to ensure emotional and financial security of a person. With increasing age, the responsibilities and liabilities such as loan EMIs, insurance premiums, and rents of a typical common man increase.

Hence, proper retirement planning has become all the more important amid today’s uncertain and inflation-hit times. Inflation, in particular, erodes the real value of your investment returns. Thus, retirees worry more than others about inflation.

Let’s first delve into why retirees are most vulnerable to inflation.

Retirees are generally most sensitive to price rise because their income from investment portfolios has no inherent inflation adjustment. In addition, retired people usually do not add to their accounts, which makes returns important to them. Retirees can only benefit from owning Social Security benefits – which are the only inflation-hedged assets available to them.

What to do to curb inflation’s side effects on retirement funds?

According to experts, it is critical to evaluate your investment strategy along with the retirement income plan to assess if you are fully protected from the adverse effects of inflation in the long term. This way you would be better placed to calculate how much your nest egg is valued at the moment. You are advised to factor in inflation in the next 10, 20 and 30 years. It is important to find out if your current investment strategy will need to change post retirement.

 Retirees are generally most sensitive to price rise because their income from investment portfolios has no inherent inflation adjustment.

Source: © Littlemacproductions  | Megapixl.com

  • A real estate investment trust (REIT) or energy sector stocks, are better positioned to see their value grow in accordance with the inflation rate.
  • Stock investments can be balanced with more conservative options like bonds, since these are more predictable and offer stable returns.
  • Traded commodities have historically performed best during the times of high and rising inflation.

The Bottom Line

Since inflation can adversely impact portfolio returns, a proper planning is a must to stave off the unwanted consequences.  Reducing spending, building a realistic retirement budget, and leveraging investments can help to ease the impact of inflation.

RELATED ARTICLE: 3 glittering ASX-listed gold stocks amid precious metal’s sharp rally

RELATED ARTICLE: Are you still shying away from Investing in Cryptocurrencies?

RELATED ARTICLE: Nations conclude climate agreement after last-minute compromise on fossil fuels


Disclaimer

The content, including but not limited to any articles, news, quotes, information, data, text, reports, ratings, opinions, images, photos, graphics, graphs, charts, animations and video (Content) is a service of Kalkine Media Incorporated (Kalkine Media), Business Number: 720744275BC0001 and is available for personal and non-commercial use only. The advice given by Kalkine Media through its Content is general information only and it does not take into account the user’s personal investment objectives, financial situation and specific needs. Users should make their own enquiries about any investment and Kalkine Media strongly suggests the users to seek advice from a financial adviser, stockbroker or other professional (including taxation and legal advice), as necessary. Kalkine Media is not registered as an investment adviser in Canada under either the provincial or territorial Securities Acts. Some of the Content on this website may be sponsored/non-sponsored, as applicable, however, on the date of publication of any such Content, none of the employees and/or associates of Kalkine Media hold positions in any of the stocks covered by Kalkine Media through its Content. Kalkine Media hereby disclaims any and all the liabilities to any user for any direct, indirect, implied, punitive, special, incidental or other consequential damages arising from any use of the Content on this website, which is provided without warranties. The views expressed in the Content by the guests, if any, are their own and do not necessarily represent the views or opinions of Kalkine Media. Some of the images/music that may be used in the Content are copyright to their respective owner(s). Kalkine Media does not claim ownership of any of the pictures displayed/music used in the Content unless stated otherwise. The images/music that may be used in the Content are taken from various sources on the internet, including paid subscriptions or are believed to be in public domain. We have used reasonable efforts to accredit the source wherever it was indicated or was found to be necessary.


Sponsored Articles


Investing Ideas

Previous Next
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.