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The Final 3 Years Before Firefighter Retirement: The Planning Window That Changes Everything
Early in your career, retirement planning is about accumulation. You contribute to deferred compensation, you trust the pension formula, and you let compounding do its work.
As retirement gets closer, planning becomes less about building and more about coordinating.
I often explain it this way:
You’ve spent your career collecting tools. The final few years are about making sure all those tools work together when you need them most.
The Risk Nobody Talks About When a Stock Takes Off
Historically, that one dollar has grown dramatically over time when dividends were reinvested. The path was never smooth. There were major downturns along the way. But over the long run, diversified investors were rewarded for staying invested.
The important lesson is not that markets never fall - because they absolutely do. The lesson is that long-term growth has historically favored disciplined investors who stay diversified.
Life, Portfolios, and Not Putting All Your Eggs in One Basket
It’s difficult to take time to reflect without immediately jumping to what’s next.
Do you notice how we do that? At least twice a year… sometimes more.
Kind of like rebalancing a portfolio.
Maybe it’s really a rebalance of our life.