Quote Originally Posted by Being View Post
Yes, that is the conventional wisdom and the same advice I get from my IRA management. I just haven't heard a convincing reason for that. If you have reached your goal before retirement, why on earth is it wise to take any risk at all?
Quote Originally Posted by Being View Post
If I place an order after close, the price will be at the next day's closing price. That's 24 hours of finger crossing. If I'd be idiot enough to trade Friday after close that is 72 hours. I can place an order right up to close but in reality orders must be placed at least 30 minutes prior to close to have a reasonable expectation of them being executed. 30 minutes is a long time.
I find the juxtaposition of these two points to be... puzzling. Retirement funds aren't meant to be day traded, but drawn down in a boring and predictable manner (even better if you can just pull out dividends and leave the shares untouched); there's generally no reason to worry about the exact time in which a withdrawal is executed unless you have a crystal ball and are trying to time the market, which seems like behavior that is at odds with a sober and low risk mindset. To see that coupled with an argument about having no stock exposure because the risk is too great...

I guess that even if I have a notional number I want to hit, it's all based on probabilities. If you can exceed that number, or stretch your withdrawals a bit, you insulate yourself from longevity risk that wasn't accounted for by your original model. There's also some evidence that some modest stock exposure can actually reduce your volatility, as bond prices have historically moved opposite stocks (this assumption has been tested in recent years with the zero rate bound, though, so it may not be as relevant today). *Shrugs* to each his own.