While there is no lack of long-term investment advice for young and mid-career professionals–contribute to your retirement accounts early and often!–there is a lot less information for those right on the brink of retirement.

This can make the transition to retirement feel a bit fraught. Many new retirees either go a little overboard with spending because they finally can, while many others become paranoid about spending too much.

The five years before you retire is a great time to revisit your investment strategies, make plans for how you’ll access your money, and tweak your assumptions about the next step. Here’s how you can do that.

Set up your investment buckets

Do you know where your money will come from in the first few years after you hang up your hat? Maybe you have a decent-size nest egg, but what happens if the market takes a major downturn the year you plan to retire? You might be able to keep working as you wait for the market (and your investments) to recover, but what if you’re not able to stay in your job?

The way to avoid this kind of worry is to set up buckets for your investments based on time. In other words, you want to age your money so that it’s ready when you need it. For effective retirement planning, you will want to have your money set aside in three buckets.

• Short-term investments: This bucket is for the money you intend to use for living expenses for the first 1 to 5 years of retirement. Since you want this money to be ready and accessible, you want stability and liquidity—meaning you’ll invest in cash equivalent assets that protect the principal. Your short-term investments might include CDs, U.S. Treasury bills, and money market funds.
• Medium-term investments: The money you intend to use for retirement income for years 6 to 15 of your retirement will go in this bucket. Since you’re not planning on using this money for a little while, you can afford to be a little more aggressive while still aiming to protect the principal. Generally, your medium-term investments will include a mix of bonds and stocks, but leaning more toward the lower-risk bonds.
• Long-term investments: Just because you’re not 30 anymore doesn’t mean you can’t still invest like a whippersnapper. This investment bucket consists of money you don’t intend to touch until at least 16 years into your retirement, which means you have time to allow this money to ride out any market fluctuations—and take advantage of the higher-risk/higher-return assets like stocks.

Rebalance your investments

Each year, you will rebalance these buckets as appropriate. When your long-term investments are going gangbusters, you’ll move some of that money into your medium-term bucket, and move some of the medium-term money into the short-term bucket. This way, you’ll always have accessible money in your short-term investments for your living expenses, and you can keep a weather eye on your medium- and long-term investments.

Setting up your investment buckets before you retire will not only give you peace of mind about where you money will come from in those first few years, but it will also set you up for investing success during your retirement.