The great Alabama coach Paul “Bear” Bryant once said, “Offense wins games. Defense wins championships.” Every great coach shares the same philosophy. All good teams know how to win games, but they become champions by focusing on strategies designed to help ensure they won’t lose games.

This same philosophy is critical when it comes to saving and investing for retirement. Why? Because when you’re talking about your life savings, losses can potentially have a huge impact on your life. Consider that if you have all or most of your money invested for growth in the stock market and your portfolio loses 50% of its value, you will need to regain 100% to break even. That takes time and depends on whether the market keeps growing or drops again.