At the beginning of your financial journey, before you set up your portfolio, you may have taken a risk-tolerance questionnaire that led to a specific investment recommendation.

This probably worked well where you were still primarily concerned with growing your retirement nest egg, but it really doesn’t address how you want to source your retirement income once you move out of the accumulation phase and begin to transition into retirement.

Investing for retirement is different and requires consideration for a whole new set of challenges and risks. Once you retire, you no longer have the luxury of simply waiting out bad economic conditions like you did when you were still working. These new retirement risks include retiring into a significant market downturn, outliving your retirement savings, dealing with possible declining health and cognitive abilities, and managing unexpected spending shocks.

While finding retirement income strategies that account for these risks is attainable, it can often be confusing and exhausting. In addition, they may not align well with your particular preferences.

The way these old-school strategies are typically recommended, with little to no consideration for your unique retirement style, can lead to bad outcomes. Failing to address your personal preferences can result in strategies that aren’t properly implemented or followed. This, in turn, often leads to costly and constant revisions of your retirement plan.