I’ve spent over 40 years watching people make investing mistakes. Most of them are not what you think.
It’s not lottery-ticket stocks or crypto declines that ruin retirement. They are fast, but rare.
Quiet destroyers are different.
A 58-year-old man who panic-sells in March of a bad year and never comes back. A 64-year-old man who has seen friends get rich in tech has quietly shifted 100% of his portfolio to one sector. A 67-year-old man who has had a savings account earning 0.05% for 15 years because he “doesn’t trust the market.”
I’ve seen all three on Wall Street, from audience questions when I did TV news, and in emails since then. The damage does not appear overnight. It appears at 75, when the money runs out.
Here’s the question I get almost more than any other: At my age, how should I invest? Here are six things to get right.
1. Don’t run for cash because you’re scared
This is the biggest mistake of old investors. The market crashes, the headlines scream, and they take everything out and put it into a money market account. Then they wait – for clarity, for security, for the right moment.
That moment never comes. Meanwhile, the market recovers, and they watch it from the sidelines.
According to Fidelity’s Q2 2025 retirement analysis, only 5.4% of plan participants changed their asset mix despite the ongoing market volatility. The other 94.6% – those who stayed – recovered.
Stay invested. Adjust your mixture if you need to. But don’t go all cash.
2. Don’t be 100% in stock
Reverse mistake. Those who have lived through long bull markets are sometimes convinced that stocks always come back, so what’s the harm in getting involved?
The disadvantage is sequence-to-return risk. Experiencing a market decline in the early years of retirement can create problems that can have beyond immediate impact on your portfolio – potentially to the point where your portfolio may no longer last as long as you need.
In the first year of retirement, when you’re putting money away to live on, a 50% market decline can permanently damage your portfolio’s ability to last 30 years.
It doesn’t matter if the market eventually recovers. You sold shares at a low price to pay your bills, and those shares are gone.
You need some development. You also need some ballast.
3. Choose a realistic allocation and stick to it
The old “your age in bonds” rule (60 years means 60% of bonds) is now too conservative for most people. We are living longer and bond yields are historically low. As we recently covered, more than half of pre-retirees say the old “100 minus your age” formula no longer fits today’s environment.
Per empower dataThe average investor over the age of 50 holds 38% in US stocks and 9% in international stocks. Investors in the 60s held 35% of US stocks and 8.7% of international stocks, with bonds up by about 13%.
Those are averages, not prescriptions.
A reasonable structure for someone five to ten years into retirement: 50% to 70% in stocks (split between US and international), the rest in bonds and cash.
As you get closer to retirement, gradually shift more toward bonds and cash. The exact percentage matters less than choosing something defensive and not abandoning it the next time the market drops.
Quit immediately – Most internet financial advice comes from people who weren’t alive during the last recession. I’ve been writing about money for over 40 years. Do you want concrete advice? Sign up for the free Money Talks newsletter. It takes 10 seconds. No sparkles. no spam.
4. Create a cash bucket before you retire
This is the only step that is least appreciated. Before you start taking money out of your portfolio, set aside one to three years’ worth of living expenses in cash or a short-term treasury. When the market falls, you spend the cash and let your stocks recover. When the market is up, you refill the bucket.
This is not market time. This is structural protection against the worst version of sequence-to-return risk. This is the difference between a portfolio that performs poorly in the first decade and one that does not.
5. Consider just buying target-date funds and walking away
I’m a big fan of simplicity, especially for people who, unlike me, don’t enjoy investing. A target-date fund picks a year close to your retirement (2035, 2040, etc.), holds a diverse mix of stocks and bonds, and gradually moves toward conservative as you age. It’s set-it-and-forget-it.
according to Kiplinger’s reporting Based on Fidelity data, in the fourth quarter of 2025, 63% of Fidelity 401(k) participants had all their money invested in target-date funds. That’s not because target-date funds are perfect. This is because they prevent people from making big mistakes.
If you don’t want to think about your portfolio every quarter, this is a perfectly good answer. Just make sure the fund has low fees – 0.20% or less is reasonable.
6. Stop chasing performance
The investor who moves out of bonds and into stocks after a two-year run has bought high. The one who made his international debut after defeating America has bought at a high price. A person who buys gold after it has risen by 40% has made a high purchase.
Choose an allocation that matches your time horizon and risk tolerance. Rebalance once a year. Ignore talking heads. The best predictor of long-term investment returns isn’t picking the right stock—it’s not making the wrong move at the wrong time.
For a closer look at why holding on amid volatility matters, we’ve included several ways to protect your savings from market turmoil without burning through all the cash.
The mistake I’ve seen that ruins more retirements than any one bad investment is a series of emotional decisions. Sell when scared. Buy when excited. Repeat.
The boring portfolio – diversified, periodically rebalanced, mostly ignored – outperforms the exciting portfolio over 30 years. Almost every time. This is not a story of get rich quick. This is a story of finally getting rich. And at 50+, that’s ultimately the timeline you have.