Mastering your retirement income strategy starts with shifting your mindset from saving to spending. After decades of disciplined saving, transitioning to living off your nest egg can trigger unexpected anxiety. Bryan Barrett sits down with Edward Jones Financial Advisor Lee Colvin to break down how to reframe portfolio withdrawals as pre-earned income, overcome spending hesitation, and build a drawdown plan tailored to your values.

Learn the vital balance between holding liquidity for immediate expenses and maintaining portfolio growth to combat long-term inflation. Lee shares essential rules of thumb for setting up short-term cash cushions, managing market volatility, and making flexible annual spending adjustments to protect your wealth throughout a multi-decade retirement.

Key Takeaways:

• Mindset Reframing: How to treat portfolio distributions as an earned monthly paycheck rather than a penalty.

• Liquidity Strategies: The optimal formula for structuring 12 months of liquid cash and 3–5 years of short-term fixed-income reserves.

• Inflation & Growth: Balancing conservative spending with growth-oriented assets so your money lasts 25+ years.

• Flexible Drawdowns: Why making temporary spending tweaks during market downturns extends portfolio longevity.