Early retirement increases risk due to the longer duration of retirement and the necessity of funding healthcare before Medicare eligibility, making health savings accounts highly valuable.

“If you plan to retire prior to Medicare eligibility at age 65, you're exposed to the cost of private medical insurance. And that cost, while it can vary based on your state and your income, it ranges between $500 to $1,200 per month, per person.”

Claiming Social Security before full retirement age results in a permanent reduction of monthly benefits, though suspending and restarting benefits can be a strategy to increase them.

“You can claim Social Security as early as age 62, but the risk there is that your monthly payments will be reduced. You might be locking in a permanent reduction in monthly benefits than when you would if you claimed at your full retirement age, your FRA.”

Working part-time in early retirement mitigates sequence of returns risk by allowing retirees to draw down less from their portfolio during the first few years.

“And so by virtue of pulling less money out of that 1.9 bucket by giving that bucket more time to grow, you are in effect, quote and quote, over contributing to retirement and therefore you are softening sequence of returns risk.”

Working part-time in retirement provides happiness and health benefits that outweigh the purely financial benefits of mitigating sequence of returns risk.

“I think that going part-time for 3 years has all these happiness benefits that I actually judge as way more beneficial than the functional benefits that Andrea, you're talking about.”