Dana Anspach on the Four Phases of Retirement (and why your go-go years are the most important) SB1859

Most retirement planning focuses on accumulation -- how to save enough. Dana Anspach of Sensible Money has spent her career on the other side of that equation: what happens when it's time to actually spend the money. In her new book Living Off Your Acorns, she breaks retirement into four distinct phases -- pre-go, go-go, slow-go, and no-go -- and argues that the decade before you retire may be the most important planning window of all. CFP and MarketWatch columnist Beth Pinsker also stops by to flag an HSA inheritance problem that almost nobody sees coming.

What You'll Walk Away With

• Dana's four-phase retirement framework -- pre-go, go-go, slow-go, and no-go -- and why the pre-go years (the 10 years before you stop working) are where the most valuable planning actually happens
• Why most people wait until months before retirement to do serious planning -- and the specific things you can only fix if you start far enough out
• The JP Morgan research showing 20% volatility in retirement spending year over year -- and why that makes flexibility a more important goal than optimization
• Why Dana recommends recalibrating your retirement plan every year rather than building a 30-year model that's guaranteed to be wrong by year five
• The income ladder approach: how having bonds and CDs maturing each year means you never have to sell investments at a loss to cover spending -- and why it also helps behaviorally
• The fundedness concept: why the safe withdrawal rate was calculated assuming the Great Depression starts the day you retire, and why dynamic go-go spending gives you more room than the 4% rule suggests
• The retirement red zone -- the five years before and the first year after leaving work -- and why Dana starts shifting portfolios toward conservatism 10 years out, not five
• The long-term care reality check: why only about 15% of people incur a catastrophic care cost, why home equity is Dana's preferred reserve asset, and what insurance actually covers versus what people hope it covers
• The HSA tax problem Beth Pinsker uncovered: why a non-spouse beneficiary who inherits your HSA takes the entire balance as ordinary income in a single year -- and why you should spend it before your Roth, not after
• Why power of attorney paperwork at each individual financial institution matters more than most people realize -- and the specific authentication vulnerabilities that put retirees at fraud risk

Why This Matters Now

The decumulation phase requires a completely different strategy than accumulation -- and most people don't start thinking about it until they're months away from leaving work. Dana's case is simple: the earlier you start building flexibility into every decision, the more options you have when life doesn't go according to plan. And it almost never does.

From the Basement

Dana Anspach joins Joe and OG for a deep dive into Living Off Your Acorns, covering everything from her grandpa feeding squirrels in retirement to the very specific paperwork every financial institution needs before they'll honor your power of attorney. Beth Pinsker makes a headline segment appearance to explain the HSA inheritance tax problem her MarketWatch piece uncovered. Doug arrives with World Cup trivia. The community shares reactions to the 59% unplanned retirement episode, including Shep's 30-year story of gradually bumping his savings rate and a 37-year-old Stacker leaving the workforce in two weeks for baby number four.

Resources Mentioned

• Living Off Your Acorns: Your Guide to the Four Phases of Retirement by Dana Anspach -- available on Amazon; search "Living Off Your Acorns" or "Dana Anspach"
• Sensible Money -- Dana Anspach's financial planning firm; sensiblemoney.com
• MarketWatch -- "I'm 66 and have $85,000 in my HSA. When should I start spending it?" by Beth Pinsker
• My Mother's Money by Beth Pinsker -- previous Stacking Benjamins appearance linked at stackingbenjamins.com
• Stacking Benjamins Basics Guide -- stackingbenjamins.com/basicsguide
• Stacking Benjamins YouTube channel -- OG and Anna basics series; youtube.com/stackingbenjamins
• Stacking Benjamins Newsletter (The 201) -- stackingbenjamins.com/201
• Stacking Benjamins Community -- stackingbenjamins.com/basement

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