Starving Artist Seeks Income in Retirement

To the Portfolio Doc:

I'm a 58-year-old sculptor, self-employed, and though highly regarded, not very well paid (annual income: $10,000). My 64-year-old husband works in high tech and earns about $65,000 annually. He intends to work for another two or three years before retiring. We have a scattershot portfolio, in part the result of legacy IRAs and 401(k)s through several job changes. I'm pretty sure there's a lot of unnecessary duplication in what we own. And I suspect that we should be cutting back on risk since there's not an awful lot of time for us to recover from a serious bloodletting in the stock market.

We own our own home. Our mortgage is small and will be paid off soon. Since this property has appreciated considerably, and since we don't intend to remain here after retirement, we'll be able to buy another residence and probably be able to add around $75,000 to our nest egg. The kids are on their own with no children. So it's essentially a question of funding our own quite modest needs. Can you recommend the changes that would get us to our goal of $480,000 to $500,000 in the next couple of years? (My husband will continue to contribute the maximum to his 401(k), with a 1% match from his employer.) ...