Today we're going to be taking a look at a listener named Mike's portfolio as he prepares for an early retirement.

Now, Mike's retirement money is invested aggressively, but he wants to know the best way to start building a bond ladder with his non-retirement funds because he wants to be able to live on those as soon as you retirees.

So on this episode of Ready for Retirement, I'm going to walk you through number one, how to determine the appropriate amount to have in a bond ladder. Number two,

whether you should own individual bonds or bond funds as part of that latter. And then number three,

a different way of looking at the whole stock to bond conversation than most of us are used to.

That's all coming up on today's episode of Ready for Retirement. Let's jump right in.

This is another episode of Ready for Retirement.

I'm your host, James Cannell, and I'm here to teach you how to get the most of life with your money.

And now, on to the episode.

As I mentioned, this question comes from Mike, and Mike says this.

Hi, James.

I found your podcast a few weeks ago, and I think it's one of the most interesting and

informative podcasts on retirement out there. Each of the topics are easily digestible length, and you have a knack

for making complex concepts relatable and easy to understand. My question is on bonds and more

specifically how to build a resilient bond portfolio. My wife and I are mid to late 40s and

expect a substantial sum of money to pay out over time during the next 4 to 10 years.

I work at a real estate development firm and I have invested a number of projects that will complete and be sold over the coming years.

We have also saved $2.1 million in combined pre-tax 401ks.

We plan to both work until the proceeds from the real estate investments payout

and build to a level that can support our day-to-day expenses, kids' college, etc.

My current plan is to gradually build a bond portfolio with the real estate proceeds and, in a few

years, live off of the income in principle until our 60s when we would start drawing down on 401k

...