Today we are diving into one of the most critical phases of your financial life: what the industry calls the Retirement Red Zone. If you aren't familiar with the term, think of the Red Zone like the final five years before you cross the retirement goal line, and in my opinion, also what happens the first five years after you retire. A mistake made here isn't like a mistake made in your 30s—you don't have twenty years of wage-earning power to recover from it.