While most retirement portfolios include allocations to stocks and bonds in the years leading up to retirement, most retirement savers don’t hold much more than an emergency cushion in cash.

Christine Benz, Morningstar’s director of personal finance and retirement planning, recommends taking a preemptive approach as you get closer to retirement.

Holding too much employer stock or too much cash are among the failings a knowledgeable observer might notice if they trained his or her sights on my choices.

These four steps can help you craft a (mostly) hands-off portfolio.

You just retired (or are about to).

Ten sources of emergency cash, ranked from best to worst.

While you don’t have much control over when required minimum distributions start, you have a bit of discretion over the amount and especially which accounts you tap.

As you sift among the various options for your short-term investments, keep these key items on your dashboard: yield, guarantees, liquidity and your individual situation.

Determining how big your emergency fund should be and how you should invest it.

Health savings accounts can be valuable components of individuals’ savings toolkits, especially for those who can afford to pay their actual healthcare expenses out of pocket while leaving their health savings account assets in place to grow.

You’ve probably got one or two financial jobs on your to-do list that you were too busy to get to or perceived as boring administrative work.

For many employees, what to do with a 401(k) plan at retirement has been a foregone conclusion: Roll it over.

If stock options are part of your compensation package, it’s worth your while to get familiar with how they work generally, as well as how your company handles stock options specifically.

The U.S. market gained more than 25% for the year to date through mid-December 2024.

If you want to get yourself thoroughly depressed, spend a little time looking at statistics about Americans’ retirement preparedness.