There is roughly a ten-year window centered around your retirement date, five to ten years before, and five to ten years after called "The Retirement Risk Zone". This is when you're most vulnerable to sequence-of-returns impacting the longevity of your withdrawal strategy.

We cover this idea brought up by Wade Pfau in an episode of "The Long View", a show hosted by Christine Benz, Amy C. Arnott, and Ben Johnson - specifically:

• The Retirement Risk Zone
• The Rising Equity Glide Path
• The Social Security Delay Bridge

After that, I answer a listener question: Frank is planning to delay Social Security and wants to know — does it make sense to take bigger withdrawals from the portfolio in your 60s and then scale back in your 70s once Social Security kicks in? Short answer: yes — but how you do it matters a lot. We'll walk through it.

Finally, in our "Retire to Something" segment: After 50 years in the workforce, a former Senior of VP in Manufacturing inspires us with ideas he is doing in his retirement.

Resources:

• Episode of The Long View from Morningstar, featuring Wade Pfau: What Is the 'Retirement Risk Zone?'
• The Retirement Starts Today Blueprint

Connect with Benjamin Brandt:

• Subscribe to the This Week in Retirement: http://thisweekinretirement.com
• Get the Retire-Ready Toolkit: http://retirementstartstodayradio.com
• Work with Benjamin: https://retirementstartstoday.com/start

Get the book!
Retirement Starts Today: Your Non-financial Guide to an Even Better Retirement

Follow Retirement Starts Today in:
Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or iHeart

Why is it so hard to spend the money you spent a lifetime saving?

This is a question from Janet Bodnar in a Kiplinger article. She admits that one of her guilty pleasures in retirement is treating herself to a casual lunch while she's out running errands. Why does she feel so guilty?

Christine Benz from Morningstar is quoted in the article, which we discuss at length in this episode.

Then a listener asks a question I think a lot of you are wondering: "How am I supposed to figure out what I want to do in retirement when I can barely find time to do laundry while I'm still working?" Great question!

And in our "Retire To Something" segment, Lois from the Southeast turned a lifelong love of animals into a retirement packed with purpose — volunteering at a zoo, working part-time at an aquarium, and spending half the year with manatees!

Resource:

Article by Janet Bodnar in Kiplinger: Stop Sweating the Small Stuff When You Spend Your Retirement Money


Connect with Benjamin Brandt:

• Subscribe to the This Week in Retirement: http://thisweekinretirement.com
• Get the Retire-Ready Toolkit: http://retirementstartstodayradio.com
• Work with Benjamin: https://retirementstartstoday.com/start

Get the book!
Retirement Starts Today: Your Non-financial Guide to an Even Better Retirement

Follow Retirement Starts Today in:
Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or iHeart

Your beneficiary designations are probably outdated. Not because you made bad decisions, but because you made them once and never looked again. We're going to walk through five areas where these forms commonly go wrong, and what you can do about it.

For our Listener Questions segment: "What's the best way to position any assets I have for when my wife and I pass — to most easily and efficiently pass on to our kids?"

And this week's "Retire to Something" listener talks about her definition of retirement, which might be the simplest and best one yet.

Resource:

Article by Daniel P. Michaelse on WealthManagement.com: "Five Beneficiary Designations to Review Now
"

Connect with Benjamin Brandt:

• Subscribe to the This Week in Retirement: http://thisweekinretirement.com
• Get the Retire-Ready Toolkit: http://retirementstartstodayradio.com
• Work with Benjamin: https://retirementstartstoday.com/start

Get the book!
Retirement Starts Today: Your Non-financial Guide to an Even Better Retirement

Follow Retirement Starts Today in:
Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Overcast, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, or iHeart