The Most Dangerous Retirement Age
Cigarettes carry a warning label:
Smoking can be hazardous to your health.
If retirement decisions carried one, it might read:
Major financial decisions made at 60 can permanently affect the rest of your life.
Back in 2004 when I started Back 9 Financial it was done as a metaphor to life. On the Front 9 one accumulates assets and on the Back 9 one needs to use the accumulated assets to create a lifetime income! I consider age 60 to making the turn between the Front 9 and the Back 9. What’s different from our parent’s generations retirement is that many of them had lifetime pensions, where we have defined contribution plans where we must accept Personal Responsibility in managing these assets correctly!
I have a book coming out within the next several months that deals with this transition to the Back 9.
In my experience, the decision process should begin in your late 50s — not to retire immediately, but to get ready to get ready. Because once you reach 60, your retirement structure begins to solidify.
Most people ask the wrong question:
“Do we have enough?”
The better question is:
“How fragile is our timing?”
The first five years of retirement income matter disproportionately.
Withdraw during a market downturn and recovery becomes significantly harder — particularly when income must continue. For 50 years I’ve told audiences: if you can, retire at the beginning of a bull market, not the end of one. Yet markets do not ring a bell at the top.
As Warren Buffett reminds us:
“Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful.”
We have experienced an extraordinary 15-year run in asset prices. Will it continue? Perhaps. But planning should not depend on hope.
Claim Social Security too early and the reduction is permanent. As I’ve said countless times, for many individuals the benefit at age 70 is roughly double what it is at 62. You worked 40 years to earn that check — does it make sense to reduce it permanently? And remember: your spouse inherits that decision. Maximizing lifetime benefits often means thinking beyond your own life expectancy.
Sequence income poorly and tax drag compounds quietly for decades. I have seen far too many retirees waste historically low tax brackets in their early 60s, only to face unnecessary RMD pressure in their 70s.
And here is one major risk often overlooked when considering early retirement:
Health insurance.
When you are working, you are often covered by your employer. Retire before 65 and that coverage ends — well before Medicare begins.
Between 60 and 65, securing adequate coverage can be daunting. Premiums can exceed $2,000 per month for a couple, often accompanied by annual deductibles of $10,000 per spouse. That is before a significant medical event.
Over five years, this exposure can materially alter portfolio longevity and income sequencing.
One practical solution I frequently recommend: if possible, one spouse continues working until 65. Employer-sponsored coverage during that window can preserve flexibility and reduce unnecessary risk.
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This is not about fear.
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It is about structure.
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The Front 9 of life was about accumulation.
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The Back 9 is about protecting what you built.
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And the Back 9 operates differently.
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There are no mulligans.
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You cannot “unclaim” Social Security.
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You cannot rewind early withdrawals.
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You cannot undo a poorly planned insurance gap.
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Age 60 is not a finish line.
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It is the checkpoint where disciplined modeling becomes essential.
Over the next few months, I’ll explore these structural realities more deeply — including why many retirement assumptions are driven more by emotion than mathematics.
In April, I will open a limited presale preview of my upcoming book, which expands on the Front 9 / Back 9 framework and the principle of Personal Responsibility in the distribution phase of life.
If you would like early access before the public release mid-year, you can join the preview list below.
Retirement is not dangerous.
But unmanaged risk is.
And age 60 is where preparation must replace impulse.
The real risk is assuming nothing will change—until it does.
David P. Zander
CFP Emeritus Board ™
dzander@back9pro.com
260-615-0078
