The point of being a retiree is meant to be the most relaxing part of your life. You no longer have to work and can now travel.
However, retirement does still come with some work because you have to look after your life savings and make sure that it lasts the rest of your life.
Managing a portfolio doing the buying & selling sounds stressful to me. I'd rather identify a group of shares that I could own forever like these:
Washington H. Soul Pattinson and Co. Ltd (ASX: SOL)
Soul Patts is an investment conglomerate that's more than a century old. There aren't many businesses on the ASX that can point to that kind of longevity. There's a fantastic chance it will be around for at least another 100 years, giving retirees peace of mind.
It can change its investment holdings as it sees fit, making it very adaptable to the changing world. Some of its largest holdings include TPG Telecom Ltd (ASX: TPM) and Brickworks Limited (ASX: BKW).
Its long-term investment style have resulted in it outperforming the market and also being able to pay a growing fully franked dividend which has been increased each year since 2000.
It's currently trading with a grossed-up yield of 3.6%.
WAM Research Limited (ASX: WAX)
WAM Research is a listed investment company (LIC) that is run by the high-performing team at Wilson Asset Management, led by Geoff Wilson.
I really like this LIC because it purely focuses on the underlying quality of the shares it invests in and only acts when there is a catalyst that will improve the valuation.
It runs a diversified portfolio so there won't be many times when the whole portfolio goes up more than 25% in a year, however it also means there aren't many bad years either as it is full of quality picks. In-fact over the past five years the portfolio has returned an average of 18.8% per annum before fees and expenses, making it one of the best LICs on the ASX.
The grossed-up dividend yield is projected to be 8.6% for FY18 and it has increased its dividend every year since the GFC.
Rural Funds is currently the only real estate investment trust (REIT) to give exposure to the agricultural sector, although it will soon have a peer on the ASX.
Before Rural's latest acquisition it had 38 properties spread across six different agricultural sectors with a weighted average lease expiry of 12.5 years.
There is rental indexation built into its contracts with tenants, which gives the management of Rural Funds the confidence to predict that distributions can be increased by 4% per annum over the long-term.
It currently has a trailing distribution yield of 5%.
Foolish takeaway
All three shares are quality long-term ideas, which is why none of them trading cheaply today. However, I still would be happy to buy some shares of each of them at the current prices and add to my position if they become better value at a later point.
