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

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Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-stacking-benjamins-show-745268/dana-anspach-on-the-four-phases-of-retirement-and-why-your-go-go-years-are-the-most-important-sb1859.md
Podcast: [The Stacking Benjamins Show](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-stacking-benjamins-show-745268)
Published: 2026-06-24T08:01:00+00:00
Episode link: https://pscrb.fm/rss/p/mgln.ai/e/345/rss.art19.com/episodes/74748c66-c24b-4651-b118-75d17b8a1ef6.mp3?rss_browser=BAhJIg90cmFuc2NyaWJyBjoGRVQ%3D--952c5701c84ad333c69d5faa668f8177091704f0
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Duration seconds: 4097

## Resource

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 lo…

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