The 7 Best ETFs for Retirement Investors

Mutual funds almost go hand-in-hand with retirement investing.

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Mutual funds almost go hand-in-hand with retirement investing. And why not? The modern mutual fund predates exchange-traded funds (ETFs) by more than six decades. Most 401(k) plans hold nothing but mutual funds. So it’s reasonable to link one with the other.

But don’t sleep on exchange-traded funds. As you’ll soon find out, while many of the best ETFs out there are tactical strategies and great trading vehicles, some of them are dirt-cheap, long-term buy-and-hold dynamos that can give investors what they need in retirement: diversification, protection and income.

Many (though not all) ETFs are simple index funds – they track a rules-based benchmark of stocks, bonds or other investments. It’s an inexpensive strategy because you’re not paying managers to analyze and select stocks. And it works. In 2018, the majority of large-cap funds (64.5%) underperformed Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index – the ninth consecutive year that most of them failed to beat the benchmark.

Today, we’ll look at seven of the best ETFs for retirement. This small group of funds covers several assets: stocks, bonds, preferred stock and real estate. Which ones you buy and how much you allocate to each ETF depend on your individual goal, be they wealth preservation, income generation or growth.

Disclaimer

Data is as of Aug. 28. Yields represent the trailing 12-month yield, which is a standard measure for equity funds.

Kyle Woodley

Kyle Woodley is the Editor-in-Chief of WealthUp, a site dedicated to improving the personal finances and financial literacy of people of all ages. He also writes the weekly The Weekend Tea newsletter, which covers both news and analysis about spending, saving, investing, the economy and more.


Kyle was previously the Senior Investing Editor for Kiplinger.com, and the Managing Editor for InvestorPlace.com before that. His work has appeared in several outlets, including Yahoo! Finance, MSN Money, Barchart, The Globe & Mail and the Nasdaq. He also has appeared as a guest on Fox Business Network and Money Radio, among other shows and podcasts, and he has been quoted in several outlets, including MarketWatch, Vice and Univision. He is a proud graduate of The Ohio State University, where he earned a BA in journalism. 


You can check out his thoughts on the markets (and more) at @KyleWoodley.