Transition Period Strategy Part 3 – A Case Study: EDU #2518

The Retirement and IRA Show

Jim Saulnier, CFP® & Chris Stein, CFP®

Business, Investing

4.3 • 729 Ratings

🗓️ 30 April 2025

⏱️ 87 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Chris’s Summary:
Jim and I are joined once again by Jacob for the third and final part of our series on transition period strategy. This time, we focus on the practical side of asset positioning: how near-retirees can begin structuring spending reserves without overreacting to short-term volatility. We use an example case study to explain how to segment early retirement needs into time-based chunks, identify dollars that require principal protection, and distinguish between your Minimum Dignity Floor and Fun Number spending.

Jim’s “Pithy” Summary:
Chris, Jacob, and I finish up our series on positioning assets during what we call the Venn diagram years or transition period. That’s that murky overlap between accumulation and decumulation, where you’re not retired yet, but you’re gearing up to live off your savings. This week, we dig into a listener’s question—he’s five years out from retirement and feeling nervous about market drops. He doesn’t know when or how to start making changes.

So, we build a hypothetical case to show what this might actually look like on paper. I walk through how to start allocating dollars across time without trying to do everything at once (because that’s how people freeze up or make bad calls). Jacob jumps in to explain why we don’t just ladder investments, we build what we call a liquidity timeline—an approach that gives you structure and flexibility. I dig into recency bias, the emotional hang-ups that stop people from spending even when they can—and should. We talk through which dollars need principal protection, which don’t, and why timing matters. And then I get into buffered strategies, laterals, the illusion of statement dollars, and, of course, my ongoing beef with growth-focused asset managers who don’t understand the first thing about distribution planning.

The post Transition Period Strategy Part 3 – A Case Study: EDU #2518 appeared first on The Retirement and IRA Show.

Transcript

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0:00.0	The retirement and IRA show represents the words and views of the show hosts exclusively and should not be construed as investment, legal, or tax advice.
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0:19.8	Diversification and asset allocation strategies do not assure profit or protect against loss.
0:23.6	Never make any investment or financial decisions based on information offered on this show
0:26.7	without first consulting your financial legal or tax advisor.
0:29.5	Financial planning services offered through Jim Solnier and Associates LLC, a registered investment advisor. This is the retirement and IRA show coming to you from beautiful Northern Colorado.
0:47.4	Join us as certified financial planner Jim Sondier, as well as Colorado State University
0:52.4	Finance instructor and certified financial planner Chris Stein
0:55.8	teach you about IRAs, borrow-en-case, annuities, social security, pension plans, and estate planning
1:02.8	and a fun and enjoyable show. Whether you are listening live in Colorado or streaming from their
1:08.2	website or iTunes podcast, Jim and Chris want you to know that they're
1:12.3	available to help you plan for your retirement. Just visit their website at Jimhelps.com.
1:18.1	That's Jim H-E-L-P-S dot com and click the Meet the Team button on the homepage.
1:24.4	Now here's Jim and Chris with today's show.
1:29.6	Hello and welcome to the Retirement and IRA show EDU edition for this week.
1:35.3	On this week's show, it's going to be the third in a series where we've been discussing our concept of asset positioning, which is our way of, we'll call it
1:48.1	allocating assets in order to assign jobs to those assets or resources. And that job usually
1:59.4	entails two variables.
2:04.0	When are the dollars needed and for what purpose?
2:11.0	And that helps inform us as to where we feel that you should place those assets or position those assets.
	...

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