Biggest Worry About Retiring? Running Out of Money
Category: Financial and taxes in retirement
July 23, 2025 — Almost two thirds of Americans have this understandable fear- that they will live longer than their money lasts. According to the Morningstar Center for Retirement & Policy Studies, 45% of Americans who retire at 65 have an increased risk of running out of retirement savings before they die.
The basic problem is that most people haven’t saved enough for a comfortable retirement. Just over half of baby boomers have saved less than $250,000. Another problem, even for retirees who do have significant retirement savings, is that most do not have a systematic approach to withdrawing those funds. One study by IRALogix found that only 22% of retirees have some kind of plan for taking down their savings. This article will try to provide some help on that score.
Comments on "Biggest Worry About Retiring? Running Out of Money"
JCarol says:
I'm concerned about do-nothing government "leaders" who refuse to proactively address the likely haircut to about 83% of current benefits SS come 2033, and bigger cuts as time goes on. Ditto on Medicare's Hospital benefit fund that's on track to insolvency a couple of years later (estimates are it will only be able to pay 89% of costs circa 2036).
When I look at our retirement funds vs. needs, it's always with an eye to what will happen when/if one of us predeceases the other, thus losing the smaller of our SS benefits. So far, the numbers are playing out ok, but it be more challenging if benefits are cut to 80%-ish.
Now 73, I'm glad we're still be earning some income through our consulting business rather than being fully retired.