When we talk to retirees, we mention that this is a new stage of life. Years ago, someone retired at 65 and could expect to live another 30 years. Today, as people, especially women, live a lot longer. You've got to have stocks or equities, those still have to be an important component to overcome inflation for the retirees. With respect to an overall diversified plan, a retiree may want to hold more in what we call income producing investments like bonds or certificates of deposit. It's a great way to get a pay check like they used to get when they were in the workforce, but the key is a lot of fixed income investments for longer terms -- CDs, corporate bonds, tax-free bonds or state issued bonds, US treasure bonds. The latest trend in the bond market has been adding some sort of an inflation index feature. The interest rate of the principal invested combined with the interest rate that you are getting on the money from your principal invested, could be increased by a certain percentage based on what the published rate of inflation is. The biggest argument against bonds has only been that they don't grow and they don't overcome inflation. There have been more strides made to create bonds that have some sort of inflation index feature that as inflation goes up, the money you get on that bond goes up.
