Please stay tuned for important disclosure information at the conclusion of this episode.

Hi, I'm Christine Benz from Morningstar, and welcome to the How to Retire podcast.

It's a companion to my book, which is also called How to Retire.

Each episode will provide a bite-sized lesson about

how to do some aspect of retirement well. One of my favorite personal finance journalists is

author in Washington Post columnist Michelle Singletary. I'm happy to say that I've gotten to know

Michelle a bit through our regular conversations. In her work and presentations, she frequently

discusses her thriftiness. So I wanted to discuss with Michelle an issue that I've observed

through talking to a lot of retirees, that if they've been good savers like Michelle, it's difficult

to flip the switch into spending. I asked her to discuss that transition in her own household.

Michelle, thank you so much for being here. Oh, it's my pleasure. Always to talk to you.

Well, I love talking to you, too. And I wanted to talk to you specifically about this idea of

moving from savings mode to getting into spending mode in retirement, which is something

that you and I have talked about over the years. In your contact with your readers, have you heard

from them that this is a difficult transition that they have to make when they get into

retirement that they begin spending from their portfolios?

It is what other than what the market is doing, it is the top reason why people have so much

anxiety. There's a lot of press about how to spin down, you know, what percentage, 3%. You guys did a

great report about, is it the new three or the four.

But really what I'm finding when I talk to both my readers and in my community and other people

who've retired like my husband is that I spent, if you've done everything you're supposed to do,

I've spent the last 20 or 30 years saving. And now you're telling me I got to spend and it's so difficult, the psychological block to spend down as opposed to save up.

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