Nothing Coming In — The Fear That Arrives With the First Retirement Withdrawal

The Psychology of Drawing Down Savings: why the first withdrawal unsettles people who are already financially ready

Chris Maduri has spent nearly two decades walking people from earning money to living off it, and he finds the anxiety starts with the first withdrawal, long before markets do anything. Most preparation treats retirement as a maths problem, when the harder change is that after 30 years of watching a balance grow, people now have to watch it fall on purpose. He explains how that feeling drives real decisions, from cutting spending they could comfortably afford to reaching for returns they do not need. Across 15 years and work with about 70 insurance companies, he has seen which plans hold up once people start drawing on them and which only ever worked on paper. Listeners leave able to name what is actually making them uneasy, and knowing which decisions to make before the feeling makes them.

About Chris Maduri

Chris Maduri, podcast guest

Retirement & Life Transitions Expert

Nearly 20 years Helping people prepare for retirement4 Pillars of sustainable retirement planning3 Buckets in his wealth-building approachSales Director Named by Financial Marketing Group in 2013

Chris Maduri has spent nearly two decades helping people prepare for more than retirement - he helps them prepare for the life that comes after work.

Because retirement isn't simply the day the pay cheque stops.

It can change your identity, your marriage, your relationship with your time, your health, your family and your sense of purpose. And Chris believes that's the part of retirement planning most people don't talk about.

Chris began his career just before the 2008 Financial Crisis, an experience that fundamentally shaped how he thinks about risk. Watching carefully constructed plans come under pressure taught him that assumptions can fail - and that a retirement plan needs to work in the real world, not just on paper.

But after nearly two decades in the industry, Chris has come to see that financial preparation is only one part of the equation.

The bigger question is: What are you actually retiring to?

Chris describes retirement as the "fourth quarter of life" - and, if you've done things right, a little overtime.His work explores what it takes to make that chapter meaningful: having financial confidence, maintaining your health, protecting the people you love, staying connected to a sense of purpose and knowing how you want to spend the years you've worked so hard to create.

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