Retirement planning: What is the 3 bucket strategy for retirement? (2024)

To have a stress-free retirement, it's smart to start planning for it early. A retirement bucket strategy is a money plan to help save for retirement. It involves dividing your savings into three "buckets" based on when you'll need the money.

Here are five quick points to know about the bucket strategy for retirement planning

1.It is an investment approach that bifurcates your retirement corpus into three buckets.
2.These buckets are based on the time horizon for when the money will be required-immediate, medium-term and long-term.

3.Immediate bucket holds money in liquid assets, medium-term bucket in income assets, and long-term bucket monies in growth assets.
4.It helps with stand market fluctuations while managing withdrawals.
5.This strategy should be topped up with asset allocation and rebalancing strategies for optimisation

The 30:30:30:10 rule of saving for one's retirement

Now let us take a look at the retirement bucket strategy a little closer.


What is the three bucket strategy in retirement planning

The buckets are divided based on when you'll need the money: short-term, medium-term, and long-term. The short-term bucket has easily accessible money, the medium-term bucket has money in things that generate income, and the long-term bucket has money in things that grow over time. This helps manage changes in the market while taking out money. It helps retired people meet their financial needs at different stages of retirement. It's also good to combine this strategy with other ways of managing assets, like asset allocation and rebalancing, to make it work best.

Retirement planning: How to calculate retirement corpus

First bucket

The first bucket in this strategy is for covering everyday expenses and any sudden needs like medical bills, especially in the first 3 to 4 years after retiring. The money in this bucket is usually in things you can quickly turn into cash, like savings accounts, fixed deposits, liquid funds. It's important for this bucket to be very safe and not too risky, because it's what you'll use for your immediate needs.

Second bucket

The second bucket in the retirement bucket strategy is for money you'll need for medium-term goals, like traveling or pursuing hobbies. This money should be enough to cover expenses for at least 5 to 10 years. Investments in this bucket usually give moderate returns, helping your savings grow slowly but steadily. It's a good idea to consider investments like short-duration funds or high-quality corporate bond funds for this bucket.

Third bucket

The third and final bucket in this strategy is for long-term investments that aim to earn the highest returns adjusted for inflation. It's designed to provide a steady income for retired individuals and can also replenish the first two buckets if needed. For long-term goals, it's important to invest in assets with high growth potential, like stocks. Bluechip funds and multi-asset funds are good options for investments in this retirement bucket.


Retirement planning: What is the 3 bucket strategy for retirement? (2024)

FAQs

Retirement planning: What is the 3 bucket strategy for retirement? ›

The buckets are divided based on when you'll need the money: short-term, medium-term, and long-term. The short-term bucket has easily accessible money, the medium-term bucket has money in things that generate income, and the long-term bucket has money in things that grow over time.

What is the 3 bucket strategy for retirement? ›

The 3 Bucket Strategy is a well-known financial planning method that categorizes assets into three separate 'buckets': short-term income needs, intermediate requirements and long-term necessities. Assets within each bucket should be invested in different ways depending on when the money will need to be accessed.

What is the three-bucket rule? ›

Divide your assets into buckets for the short, medium, and long term. Each bucket has a risk/reward profile to match the time horizon. Periodically weigh the contents of your buckets versus your upcoming needs and “pour” your money from bucket to bucket.

What are the 3 important components of every retirement plan? ›

A good plan isn't just about the size of your nest egg. It's also about how you manage these three things: taxes, investment strategy and income planning.

What is the 3 rule for retirement? ›

What is the 3% rule in retirement? The 3% rule in retirement says you can withdraw 3% of your retirement savings a year and avoid running out of money. Historically, retirement planners recommended withdrawing 4% per year (the 4% rule).

What is the 3 bucket budget? ›

Many of our clients have also helped their children by teaching similar strategies to help pave the way for successful money management skills during adulthood. The three budgeting buckets we focus on are the primary checking account, savings and investments, and discretionary funds.

What are retirement planning strategies? ›

The process of creating a retirement plan includes identifying your income sources, adding up your expenses, putting a savings plan into effect, and managing your assets. By estimating your future cash flows, you can judge whether your retirement income goal is realistic.

What is a triple bucket? ›

Ecolab's Klercide™ Triple Bucket System features a unique controlled application wringer which enables the even distribution of disinfectant over cleanroom surfaces. This enables accurate, repeatable results which help minimize operator error and enhance compliance with cGMP.

What are the three buckets of prevention? ›

What Are These 3 Buckets?
  • Traditional clinical preventive interventions. ...
  • Innovative preventive interventions that extend care outside the clinical setting. ...
  • Total population or community-wide interventions.

How do you use the bucket strategy? ›

The bucket strategy divides your retirement savings into three distinct buckets based on when you'll need the money: immediate, medium-term, and long-term. Here's how it works: Immediate Bucket: This bucket contains funds in liquid assets, readily available for any short-term needs or emergencies.

What are the first three steps to retirement planning? ›

The steps in retirement planning are figuring out your goals, creating a plan with a well-diversified portfolio and contributing consistently to your retirement savings accounts.

What are the 4 pillars of retirement? ›

Today it centers around four pillars — health, family, purpose and finances. Thought and action about each of these pillars can help in achieving your ideal retirement.

What is the third step in retirement planning? ›

Third step: Update the retirement plan.

Investing, including building a diversified portfolio, is the foundation of achieving long-term financial goals. Younger investors have more time before they retire, so they can generally take on more risks with their investments.

What is the golden rule of retirement planning? ›

Embrace the 30X thumb rule: Save 30X your annual expenses for retirement. For example, with annual expenses of ₹25,00,000 and a retirement in 20 years, aiming for a ₹7.5 Cr portfolio is recommended.

What is the golden rule of retirement savings? ›

Retirement may seem like a distant dream, but it's never too early or too late to start planning. The “golden rule” suggests saving at least 15% of your pre-tax income, but with each individual's financial situation being unique, how can you be sure you're on the right track?

What is a good income for retirement? ›

By age 40, you should have accumulated three times your current income for retirement. By retirement age, it should be 10 to 12 times your income at that time to be reasonably confident that you'll have enough funds. Seamless transition — roughly 80% of your pre-retirement income.

What are the buckets in retirement? ›

The first bucket is predicated on expenses for the first three years of retirement and contains cash. The second bucket contains very conservative assets, “because they're up next,” Schoenhardt says. Bucket three is in growth and income investments, and four is more focused on domestic growth.

What is the 4 rule in retirement? ›

The 4% rule limits annual withdrawals from your retirement accounts to 4% of the total balance in your first year of retirement. That means if you retire with $1 million saved, you'd take out $40,000. According to the rule, this amount is safe enough that you won't risk running out of money during a 30-year retirement.

What are the tax buckets for retirement? ›

TAX DIVERSIFICATION DEFINED

With tax diversification, three “buckets” of wealth are built up: (1) assets subject to ordinary income tax rates upon distribution in retirement, (2) assets subject to capital gains tax rates, and (3) assets not subject to any tax upon distribution.

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