What Does “Don’t Ask the Market for Permission to Retire” Actually Mean?

Johnson Rhett

Quick Answer

“Don’t ask the market for permission to retire” means you shouldn’t let your retirement depend on whether the stock market happens to be doing well.

 

A robust retirement plan should be built to work through both good markets and bad ones. The goal isn’t to predict what the market will do next - it’s to have a plan in place so your retirement income and lifestyle aren’t dependent on it.

 

Why This Matters

If you’re within 10 years of retirement, you’ve probably found yourself saying or thinking: 

 

“I’ll feel better about retiring once the market gets back to where it was.”

 

Or: “I just need one more good year.”

 

Or maybe: “Once my portfolio hits $2 million, $3 million, or whatever number I’ve decided I need, I’ll be ready. ”

 

The problem is that the market isn’t going to tell you when it’s ready to retire.

 

While you’re still working, a market downturn is easier to handle. You still have a paycheck coming in, you’re probably still contributing to your accounts (401(k), IRA, etc.), and you have time to let the portfolio recover.

 

Retirement changes that equation. 

 

You stop contributing and start withdrawing. That means a significant market decline right around retirement can have a much bigger impact on your long-term financial outlook.

 

This is what’s known as sequence-of-returns risk . The order in which investment returns occur can matter just as much as the average return you earn over time.

 

For example, two retirees can experience the exact same average 7% annual return over 20 years, but the one who faces a bear market in the first few years risks running out of money much earlier. 

That’s why “I’ll retire when the market recovers” isn’t a retirement plan.

 

What Safety-First Investing Means

At Branning Wealth Management, we built our practice around a simple belief: your retirement shouldn’t depend on the market’s permission. It should depend on a plan.

 

That’s the idea behind our Safety-First approach .

 

Instead of starting with, “What return do we need to earn?” we start with a different question:

 

“How much income do you need, and how can we build a plan to reliably provide it?”

 

Using tools like bond ladders, time-segmentation, and coordinated tax planning, we help clients create income they can count on whether the market is up, down, or sideways. 

We figure out what you need to live on, build a structure to fund it, and give the rest of your portfolio time to grow for the long term - without being forced to sell investments at the wrong time.

 

And taxes are part of that conversation, too.

 

Retirement income planning isn’t just about how much you have - it’s about how much you actually get to keep . Roth conversions, Social Security timing, RMD planning, and asset location can all play a role in making your retirement dollars go further.

 

The goal isn’t to time the market. It’s to build a retirement that doesn’t need to.

 

Questions to Ask Yourself

Your answers to these questions can help you see whether your retirement plan is truly within your control - or still depends on the market cooperating.

  • Would a significant market decline change my retirement date?
  • If the market dropped shortly before retirement, would I feel like I had to keep working?
  • How dependent is my retirement income on strong investment returns?
  • Do I have a plan to protect the income I need from my portfolio when the market gets volatile?

 

Final Thoughts

Retirement should happen on your timeline - not the market’s. 

 

Instead of waiting for the “perfect market” to retire, build a plan that allows you to retire regardless of what the market is doing.

 

If you want to hear more about how this works in practice, Jason covers this in the first episode of Ten Minutes Wealthier: Essentials . It’s about 10 minutes and goes deeper into why a market downturn right around retirement can be so much more damaging than that same downturn several years earlier.

 

And if you’re wondering whether your own retirement plan can withstand the next market downturn, go to See If We’re A Fit to learn how we can help you build a retirement plan designed for both the good markets and the bad ones.

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Johnson Rhett, CFP®, ChFC® is a fee-only, fiduciary financial advisor with Asset Dedication LLC, DBA Branning Wealth Management.

 

Want to talk? Schedule a complementary call HERE!

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Disclosures: All investing involves risk, including the potential loss of principal invested. This blog is distributed for general informational purposes only and is not intended to constitute legal, tax, accounting, or investment advice. Information in this blog is obtained from sources that we believe reliable, but BWM does not warrant or guarantee the timeliness, accuracy, or completeness of this information. Investment advisory services are offered through Asset Dedication, LLC, an SEC-registered investment advisory firm DBA Branning Wealth Management. Jason Branning, Sam Buchanan, Kelly Jennings, Johnson Rhett, and Kristi Tidwell are investment advisor representatives of Asset Dedication.