Retirement Cash Bucket Planner | Size Your Three Buckets
Find out whether your near-term retirement cash reserve is underfunded before you're forced to sell investments in a down market.
Quick answer: Size a retiree cash bucket, bond bridge, and growth bucket, then see whether near-term spending reserves are underfunded before selling investments. Enter Annual expenses, current cash, portfolio value, and cash years to personalize the estimate. It returns Cash bucket gap, cash years covered, and bond bridge target so you can compare the impact before choosing a next step. Use it to compare long-term value, tax impact, risk, time horizon, and contribution choices.
Your cash bucket target is $120,000, with $1 years covered and a $45,000 refill gap.
Bucket 2 target is $300,000, leaving $780,000 in the long-term growth bucket.
Build this cash bucket in Money MapMy retirement cash bucket target is $120,000, cash refill gap is $45,000, and growth bucket is $780,000.
Refill cash before a weak market forces investment sales, and recheck the drawdown stress test.
Bucket 2 targets $300,000 for middle-year spending support.
Long-term growth bucket is $780,000 with a planned withdrawal rate of 3.75%.
Build this in Money Map
- 1
Check the cash refill gap
Compare current cash to the target cash bucket before relying on portfolio sales.
- 2
Place cash intentionally
Compare high-yield savings, money market funds, and short-duration cash options for the liquid bucket.
- 3
Build the bucket plan in Money Map
Save cash, bond bridge, growth bucket, and drawdown assumptions together.
This is an educational estimate, not tax, legal, investment, or lending advice. Tax rules, rates, and eligibility change and depend on your full situation. Confirm with a qualified professional or the provider before acting.
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Reviewed Sep 23, 2026 · Methodology
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Everything you need to know.
How many years of cash should I keep in the cash bucket?
Where should the cash bucket actually be held?
What's the difference between the cash bucket and the bond bridge?
Is the Retirement Cash Bucket Planner free to use?
Does using the Retirement Cash Bucket Planner affect my credit score?
Are the results personalized financial advice?
What should I do after seeing the result?
How does SwitchWize choose related offers?
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Where can I see the ranking methodology?
Can Money Map use this result?
Why This Matters
The bucket strategy exists to avoid selling investments at a loss to fund near-term spending. If the cash bucket runs dry during a market downturn, the only options are selling depressed assets or cutting spending, both worse than having funded the bucket ahead of time. Sizing the cash bucket, bond bridge, and growth bucket against your actual annual expenses, rather than guessing, is what turns the strategy from an idea into a number you can act on.
How to Use It
- 1Enter your annual expenses, current cash on hand, and total portfolio value
- 2Set how many years of spending you want covered by cash and by the bond bridge
- 3Check the cash bucket gap to see whether your current reserve covers your target
- 4Use the growth bucket output to see what's left to invest for the long run
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