Can you bucket "combined data"?

We are new to the platform. I have created a "new variable" to combine data (ex. Yrs of Svc and Yrs_of_Svc) since the two groups of data reflect the same info when adding historical to new survey data. However, now I want to "bucket" this info (ex. 2-5 yrs, 6-10 yrs, etc.). When I go through the steps to "create new variable" and select the field I want to bucket, the combined field I just created or other previously created variables are not present in the list to pull from (only embedded data fields are listed). Is there another way to do this?