For those seeking to invest toward their Golden Years, exchange traded fund products provide low-cost, diversified exposure to broad asset classes, allowing investors to remain hands-off and spend less time worrying about their nest egg.
Christine Benz, Morningstar‘s director of personal finance, outlines a moderately conservative retirement investment plan with a 20-year time horizon that allocates about 50% to bonds and “other,” 10% cash and 40% stocks in a three-step, “bucket” strategy. [ETFs Have Room for Growth in Retirement Plans]
“A bucket strategy enables you to back into an appropriate asset allocation given your income needs, and it also might help you mentally endure the fluctuations that invariably accompany volatile asset classes such as stocks and commodities,” Benz said.
Benz’s first bucket covers near-term living expenses, the second bucket is for the middle part of an investor’s time frame and the last bucket is equity heavy.