How to bridge from early retirement to taking a pension

Once you stop working and start drawing on your savings, the simple act of taking money out can knock your portfolio off its intended mix, and managing that well becomes its own skill. This piece looks at how to keep an investment portfolio close to its target allocation while you're withdrawing in retirement. The thinking covers where to pull cash from as markets move, how rebalancing changes once money is flowing out rather than in, and how to set things up so a bad stretch in the markets doesn't force you to sell at the worst time. It's especially relevant to someone who retires early and needs their savings to carry them through the years before a pension or government benefits begin. The result is a practical way to think about turning a portfolio built for growth into one that has to pay you a steady income.