The First Five Years Decide the Next Thirty

The Retirement Red Zone: Managing market, spending and identity risk in the first five years after work ends

Chris Maduri began his career just before the 2008 financial crisis and watched carefully built retirement plans come under pressure in real time. That experience shapes his view that the first five years of retirement carry the most risk: a bad market, an early overspend or a lost sense of identity can set the course for decades.

He explains the guardrails that stop a rough start from becoming a rough retirement, from how withdrawals are paced to how new retirees rebuild routine and purpose once work ends.

For anyone approaching or just entering retirement, it is a practical plan for getting the opening years right, because they shape everything that follows.

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.

View profile →

Book Chris Maduri for your show

11+ podcast & stage appearances. Remote or in studio, broadcast-grade audio.

Request an interview →
How can adequate retirement planning help you get out of a midlife crisis?
0:00 / 21:16
Ask Faleskini - The Midlife Crisis Clarity Compass· Listen to Chris Maduri on air