Financial advisors urge those nearing retirement to focus on long-term planning amid market volatility.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — With markets swinging sharply in recent weeks, financial advisors are urging Americans nearing retirement to resist the urge to react to short-term turbulence and focus instead on long-term income planning.
Mike Lacey, a financial advisor with Alloy Wealth Management in Charlotte, said market volatility carries different weight depending on where someone stands in their financial journey. For younger investors with decades ahead of them, a market dip is manageable. For those on the doorstep of retirement, the stakes feel far higher.
“Volatility when you’re young is okay,” Lacey said. “Volatility in or near retirement is a little nerve-wracking because what you’ve got is what you’ve got.”
Lacey said the core advice is consistent across all age groups: build a financial plan and commit to it. Reacting to daily market swings or financial headlines, he warned, can pull a portfolio away from its long-term goals at exactly the wrong moment.
“We can’t chase those short-term gains in the market,” Lacey said. “We want folks to be really mindful about what the long-term goal is and trust that process.”
That discipline becomes especially critical in the first years of retirement, he said. A five or ten percent loss early in retirement can be deeply unsettling without a structured income plan to fall back on — even if the same loss would barely register for a younger investor.
For those in the middle of their careers — roughly five to twenty years from retirement — Lacey recommended periodically reviewing whether a portfolio still reflects both current life circumstances and future retirement goals.