Rising Interest Rates and Retirement Planning: Bonds, Healthcare, Taxes, and Key Ages

Do you find rising interest rates, bond-market swings, healthcare costs, and retirement account rules overwhelming? In this episode of the Retire Sooner Podcast, Wes Moss and Christa DiBiase help bring the headlines down to earth, exploring retirement planning questions that may matter as you prepare for, enter, or navigate retirement.

·       See how interest-rate changes may be associated with bond prices, investment portfolios, consumer borrowing costs, and the broader economy.

·       Follow the forces that may help influence Treasury yields and the bond market, including inflation expectations, economic data, government borrowing, Federal Reserve policy, and investor demand.

·       Put GDP growth, federal debt, oil prices, and inflation into context as you consider the economic environment surrounding retirement and investment planning; read Wes Moss’s perspective on inflation and retirement savings for related educational context.

·       Revisit the role fixed-income investments may play in a diversified portfolio when bond yields are generally higher than they were in recent years.

·       Explore health insurance before Medicare, including Affordable Care Act marketplace plans, household-income estimates, premiums, deductibles, provider networks, and out-of-pocket expenses.

·       Consider whether holding cash, Treasury securities, or bonds for near-term retirement expenses may be appropriate in light of your time horizon, liquidity needs, risk tolerance, tax circumstances, and overall financial plan.

·       Weigh how an HSA may be used for qualified medical expenses and the tradeoffs between current healthcare spending and retaining funds for future eligible costs.

·       Mark retirement-planning milestones at ages 55, 59½, 62, 65, 67, 70, 73, and 75, as Wes and Christa discuss how these ages may relate to workplace-plan withdrawals, Medicare eligibility, Social Security claiming, and required minimum distributions.

·       Evaluate how withdrawals from traditional IRAs, Roth IRAs, inherited IRAs, and taxable accounts may involve different tax treatment, timing