Market drops are a gift when you’re young and a potential gut-punch when you’re retired, and this episode walks through why that’s true—and what to do about it. Don and Tom break down sequence-of-returns risk in plain English, then explore practical defenses: cash buffers, CD ladders, bucket strategies, flexible withdrawals, partial retirement, and why stocks still belong in retirement portfolios whether you like it or not. Listener questions tackle letting portfolios ride for heirs, value vs. total small-cap funds, tax consequences of rebalancing, and whether political risk should affect public fund investing. The takeaway: there’s no perfect plan, only resilient ones—and behavior matters more than spreadsheets.

0:04  Why market drops are good for young investors and scary for retirees

0:28  Holiday cheer, audience growth pleas, and the gospel of paper questions

1:40  Why young investors should root for down markets

2:41  Sequence-of-returns risk explained without the jargon

3:20  Real-world retire-at-the-wrong-time examples (2000, 2008, 2020, 2022)

4:48  Why sequence risk is such a big retirement planning problem

5:40  What to do if you fear bad markets near retirement

6:08  Cash buffers and why they actually make sense in retirement

7:06  Bucket strategies and how they’re supposed to work

7:36  CD ladders as a “get-me-through-the-bad-times” strategy

9:27  Flexible withdrawal strategies and lifestyle adjustments

10:37  Partial retirement, side hustles, and easing into retirement

11:33  Why retirees still need stock exposure

12:26  Even small equity allocations help fight inflation

13:20  There is no perfect withdrawal rate—only survivable ones

14:11  The realistic withdrawal range and why stocks are still required

15:33  Why professional fiduciary reviews actually matter

16:21  When life blows up your retirement plan anyway

18:55  Listener question: should a retiree just let stocks ride for heirs?

21:36  Washington CARES, politics, and investing public funds

23:18  Small-cap value vs. small-cap index: FSIVX vs. FSSNX

25:44  Why low-cost value tilts can still make sense

27:00  Smarter gifts: Roth IRAs, 529s, and future-you generosity

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