A Retirement Portfolio Built From ETFs

Retirement is on everybody's minds, whether you are 22 or 62. You need to start saving for retirement, so that you can maintain your lifestyle and not have to worry about running out of cash as you enter your golden years. As people age, their risk profiles go down, and they want their investments to perform above inflation, but not deal with the day to day swings in the markets that leave many of us scratching our heads sometimes. Using ETFs can help mitigate a lot of the risk of owning individual stocks, while earning dividends and receiving capital appreciation make them attractive to retirees. Bonds should definitely be in your portfolio as you get older, and there are plenty of ETFs that cater to high grade, corporate bonds. High grade corporate bonds are the most conservative, and are much less likely to be hit in an economic downturn, such as the one the world faced two years ago. Some ideas for this portion of your portfolio are the iShares iBoxx $ Investment Grade Corporate Bond ETF LQD and iShares Barclays MBS Bond ETF MBB. Inflation is also a big worry for retirees, as they do not have incomes and raises to count on to fight rising costs. To counter this, retirees may want to look at adding some inflation protection to their portfolios with a position in SPDR DB International Government Inflation-Protected Bond WIP. WIP provides exposure to inflation-protected bonds issued by foreign central banks. Every portfolio should have some equity exposure, even though you are in your golden years, and spend more time looking up tee times than earnings reports. Equity focused ETFs such as Vanguard Mega Cap 300 Index MGC, Vanguard Mid Cap ETF VO, and Vanguard Small Cap ETF VB should make up at least 20% of your portfolio in total, but not so much that it alters your risk profile. Dividends are a major source of income in retirement, and an ETF like Vanguard Dividend Appreciation ETF VIG, would be the perfect addition to any retirement portfolio. Retirement planning can be hard and if you don't know where to start, a tricky and touchy subject to deal with. These ETFs give retirees the flexibility of knowing that their investments aren't going to collapse over night, and they can worry about that dogleg left on the 15th hole, instead of how they're going to pay for their rounds.