How to Structure Your Retirement Plan to Resiliently Face a Recession

Early retirees are vastly more likely than traditional retirees to hit a bad sequence of returns. Tanya says she and her husband structured their retirement plan so that it's resilient in the face of what could be a long running recession. They have two to three years worth of cash in a savings account, high yield, something like that. And they also separately have a bond allocation that would support them for multiple years beyond that.

Transcript

chevron_right

Play full episode

chevron_right

Transcript

Episode notes

Our guest this week is Tanja Hester, whom The New York Times referred to as the matriarch of the FIRE movement. For the uninitiated, FIRE stands for financial independence/retire early. Tanja is the author of the Our Next Life blog, and she is also author of the book Work Optional: Retire Early the Non-Penny-Pinching Way. Tanja and her husband Mark retired in 2017 at the ages of 38 and 41. Her blog is devoted to chronicling their journey and sharing guidance for others who might be considering an early retirement.

Background

Tanja Hester’s blog “Our Next Life”

Tanja Hester’s bio and backstory

Tanja Hester’s twitter handle @ournextlife

Tanja Hester’s author/speaker page

Tanja Hester’s book, “Work Optional: Retire Early the Non-Penny-Pinching Way”

“For These Women, a FIRE That Burns Too Male and Too White” by Charlotte Cowles; The New York Times; June 7, 2019

Early Retirement/Sequence-of-Return Risk

Tanja Hester’s writings on sequence-of-return risk

Karsten Jaske’s “Early Retirement Now” blog

Tanja Hester’s multi-phase retirement financial plan

Savings and Withdrawal Rates