I appreciate the knowledgeable tuggers chiming in. The secondary situation is that half of my pension is in a 403B. I was told that social security will not count that part of my $$$ when my husband starts his SS. With the part of the pension I am drawing SS will count that, and I won’t get half of his SS because of the windfall. I wanted to take the 403B part of my pension through the same pension as I am getting the other half from. But they may count that 403B THEN, and I wouldn’t get any of my husbands SS. So.......waiting til my husband is 66 to start drawing is the only way we KNOW for sure how they count that 403B. I don’t want to lose my part of his SS by making the wrong move with the 403B. So right now the 403B is in a nationwide account managed by me. I would like some extra monthly money now, but the uncertainty. The 403B is just not growing like I was told it would.
CONFUSING! Others understand things I don't, but 403b is akin to 401k, so I'm wondering if you got into a place on pension but they quit offering it and converted to defined contribution (403b).
You can't ever count on what someone tells you will happen with your money unless it is in CDs or bonds, which are investments with defined outcomes and dates.
I don't know anything about how your 403b under your control is deployed, but you mention Disney so it sounds like you can purchase individual stocks? what is the trade fee to do so, and are you able to reinvest dividends, without charge, including fractional shares? One reason that I am a dividend investor is that by reinvesting dividends, I have more shares than I bought. people define Growth in different ways. I like more income each year, which I get because of dividend growth (raises granted by BODs) and by reinvesting dividends into new shares. If you are looking for overall portfolio value to grow by a certain amount annually, it's going to depend on what you own and if it is a fund of some kind, what is their objective?
Start with your goals, then work back into how you should be invested to meet the goals. Add heap of salt to what money managers tell you. Nobody cares about your money more than you.