When you retire, everything changes. During your working life, you focus on putting money into the financial system through savings, investments, and your Social Security taxes. When your paychecks stop, you have to switch to taking money out. What’s the best way to do that? And how can you make your money last? Here are some simple strategies for the three stages of your retirement life:

Five years before you retire
These are the planning years. The more you learn, the more comfortable your later life will be. First ask whether you can afford to retire. What appear to be giant nest eggs may actually be quite modest, stretched over a life span.

When you retire
These are the what-next? years. You have the joy of fewer responsibilities and more free time—and questions about your standard of living in the years ahead.

Later in retirement
Now you’re consolidating. It’s normal for expenses to decline (who needs more “stuff”?). If you think you might run short, you have a few options.