Happy Friday Reader ☀️
Welcome back to Safe Money Weekly, where I share retirement income planning strategies, case studies, and ideas to help you retire with more confidence and less uncertainty.
Building Wealth Is One Challenge. Spending It Is Another.
Most people think retirement begins on the day they stop working.
I don't.
I believe retirement actually begins about five years before your retirement date.
Because that's when the objective starts to change.
For decades, retirement planning is relatively straightforward:
Save money.
Invest money.
Stay disciplined.
Give your portfolio time to grow.
But eventually, you reach a point where accumulating more wealth is no longer the primary challenge.
The challenge becomes figuring out how to use the wealth you've already built.
And that's why I believe the most important period in your retirement journey is the five years before retirement and the five years after its begun.
This is the window where some of the biggest financial decisions of your life are made:
• How much can I safely spend?
• When should I claim Social Security?
• How should my investments be positioned?
• How can I reduce taxes throughout retirement?
• How do I prepare for healthcare and long-term care expenses?
• How do I create income I can depend on regardless of market conditions?
Unfortunately, many retirement strategies approach these questions from a defensive mindset.
More bonds.
Lower spending.
The 4% Rule.
Target-date funds.
While those approaches may help protect a portfolio, they don't necessarily help maximize retirement itself.
That's why my planning philosophy starts with a different question:
How do we create enough safety and predictable income that the rest of your assets can continue doing what they were designed to do?
When your essential income needs are covered, retirement becomes far more flexible.
Your growth assets can focus on growth.
They can help combat inflation, support future spending increases, cover unexpected expenses, and potentially create a larger legacy for your family.
In other words, building wealth and living off wealth are two entirely different challenges.
And the transition between them is where the most important retirement planning happens.
This week's featured content explores that transition and why the decisions you make during this period may have a greater impact on your retirement than almost anything that happened during the decades you spent saving for it.
-Matt
p.s. enjoy my new content and resources for this week below.