One of the best parts of employing a Bucket approach to retirement portfolio management is that you don't have to be terribly hands-on. A thorough, once-a-year checkup is all you really need to keep your buckets up and running.

Year-end is an ideal time for that type of maintenance, in that you can tackle a lot of smaller portfolio-management jobs all in one go: rebalancing, filling up your cash bucket, charitable giving, and tax-loss (or tax-gain) harvesting, for example.

If you're employing a Bucket strategy, here are the key items to have on your docket as 2020 winds down.

Step 1: Check this year's spending rate

When you're accumulating assets for retirement, your savings rate is one of the best measures of whether your plan is on track. But when you transition into drawdown mode, your spending rate - how much of your portfolio you're spending annually - is the make-or-break number.

Thus, the first step in any retiree's annual checkup - whether you're using a Bucket strategy or some other approach - is to assess how much of your portfolio you've spent this year. To help gauge your spending rate, total up all of your portfolio withdrawals for 2020, then divide them by your portfolio balance, ideally from the beginning of this year. Does it pass the sniff test of sustainability? For many retirees, 2020 has been a low spending year because of the pandemic, but big-ticket expenses (new cars, new roofs) can still crop up.

Remember - not everyone needs to spend 4 per cent year in and year out. People who are well into retirement can reasonably spend more - using required minimum distributions as a starting point, for example. Meanwhile, new retirees may want to spend less than 4 per cent if they can swing it. That's largely because bond yields are so very low, and therefore portfolios that rely upon them are similarly constrained. In addition, equity valuations in several developed countries aren't cheap. Both of those issues raise the possibility that the next decade could be challenging for new retirees. Being able to get by on less if the early retirement years happen to coincide with a bear market can help ensure that enough of your portfolio is in place to recover when the market eventually does.

MORE ON THIS TOPIC: The creator of the 4 per cent rule and his own retirement

Step 2: Assess cash needs for the year(s) ahead

The next step as you refresh your buckets for 2021 is to forecast your cash flow needs for next year. In addition to the funds you need for your routine living expenses, are you expecting to make any out-of-the-ordinary outlays next year, such as a new car, major trip, or home repair/upgrade? I like this step, especially this year, because it enables you to look forward and plan for days when life is at least somewhat back to normal.

Armed with an all-in budget for the year ahead, you can then look at how much of your total outlays will be met through non-portfolio-income sources - a pension, a fixed annuity, and so forth. Subtract those income sources from your total planned spending to arrive at your planned portfolio withdrawal, and check its sustainability.

Document your portfolio spending need; we'll come back to that number in a moment. If your Bucket strategy entails holding two years' worth of portfolio withdrawals in cash - and I think that's advisable because it can provide a bit of a buffer in weak markets - forecast your cash flow needs for both 2021 and 2022.

Step 3: Size up bucket 1

Once you've arrived at your cash needs for the year(s) ahead, compare that with your current liquid reserves on hand. If you've been steering dividends and bond income back into your cash bucket over the past year (part of a "hybrid" strategy for bucket maintenance or you have cash left over for any other reason), you've probably filled up your cash bucket at least partially and will need to lean less on rebalancing for the job. Subtract current cash reserves from the cash needs you arrived at in Step 2; the amount left over is the additional amount you'll need to extract from your portfolio from rebalancing.

Step 4: Assess long-term asset allocation

Next, take a look at your long-term portfolio. Take note of your portfolio's current allocation relative to your asset-allocation target as laid out in your investment policy statement. If you have a healthy complement of stocks in your portfolio, it's likely that portion has appreciated nicely over the past few years and is taking up a larger share of your total portfolio than you intended it to.

Step 5: Source cash for bucket 

Identifying overweight positions in your portfolio will point you toward those areas that you can trim if you need to top up your Bucket 1/cash holdings, as discussed above. For most investors, as 2020 winds down, selling appreciated equity holdings, especially large-cap growth stocks and funds, is a logical place to start if they need to raise cash.

Step 6: Identify additional rebalancing needs

Pulling your cash needs from appreciated holdings may be enough to restore your baseline asset-class exposures back to your targets. However, it's a good bet that additional rebalancing may be in order. 2020 has been such a good year for US equities, following on strong performance in 2019, but other asset classes, such as bonds or Australian value stocks, have done OK, too, but not as well. As a result, you may want to do pull additional amounts from your appreciated equity holdings - above and beyond the amount needed to refill Bucket 1 - to restore your bond allocations to your targets. Also pay attention to your equity style-box positioning. Chances are growth stocks are taking up a larger share of your portfolio than value.