The portion of retirement where you're pulling from your portfolio instead of contributing. Requires a different mental model than accumulation — tax efficiency and sequence risk dominate.
Did this definition help?
Related terms
Splitting retirement assets into three "buckets": short-term cash (1–2 years), medium-term bonds (3–10 years), and long-term stocks (10+). Refill each bucket from the next one in good market years.
Gradually increasing your bond allocation in the years leading up to retirement, then reducing it again after — a "tent" shape — to buffer against sequence risk.
Quick FIRE-number estimate: multiply annual expenses by 25 (the inverse of a 4% SWR). $50K/year × 25 = $1.25M target.
How your asset allocation changes over time — typically shifting from stock-heavy to more bonds as you approach and enter retirement.
Jump back to the glossary index to search every FIRE term, filter by category, or keep browsing alphabetically.