My husband and I are fortunate. We have enough for retirement.
But ever since he retired at the end of June, I’ve felt a sleep-depriving dread. I worry we will outlive our money.
We’ve spent the past few months scrutinizing every household expenditure looking for cuts. A $20 savings on a streaming service provided fleeting euphoria. Then the anxiety returned, a stark reminder that for the first time in more than three decades of marriage, we both won’t be getting a regular paycheck.
So much retirement advice is about the accumulation phase of your life. It’s drilled into us to save, save, save.
Then comes the time to start drawing down those savings.
“Turning on spending is a different mind-set,” said Christine Benz, director of personal finance and retirement planning for Morningstar.
With retirement, savers often condition themselves that money can go into their accounts but nothing can ever come out, she said.
That’s exactly how I feel.
I’m fighting the panic because Lord help us when I stop working full time and we start tapping both retirement accounts.
The problem is all the what-ifs flood my brain.
What if a major health crisis upends our plans? What if we live into our 90s or older?
Part of my anxiety stems from the timing of my husband’s retirement. It came sooner than we had planned. A troubling workplace issue proved untenable.
During the bad days of the coronavirus pandemic, a wave of older workers retired and helped spark the “Great Resignation.” But post-pandemic financial stress and inflation have ushered in the “Great Return,” sending many people, including retirees, back to work.
A Pew Research Center survey in 2022 found that low pay, a lack of opportunities for advancement and feeling disrespected at work were the top reasons Americans quit their jobs.
My husband and I spent decades saving for retirement — he in the government’s Thrift Savings Plan, me in my company’s 401(k) plan. About 15 years ago, we began working with financial professionals to “stress test” our retirement strategy. In other words, they scrutinized our financial holdings to see whether we had enough fixed income, savings and investments to live comfortably in retirement.
We do.
Before my husband retired, we paid off our home, which was part of the plan. We don’t carry any credit card debt we can’t pay by the next billing cycle. We have no auto loans and haven’t for years. We saved to send our three children to college debt-free.
And, yet, I’m scared. (My husband, by the way, isn’t and probably is booking a tee time on an affordable local golf course.)
“We do see that the shift from saving for retirement to living in retirement is one of the biggest transitions that a person will make in their lifetime,” said Keri Dogan, head of financial wellness and retirement income solutions at Fidelity Investments, one of the largest managers of workplace retirement plans.
I know there are many people struggling to save for retirement. Among non-retirees, only 31 percent felt that their retirement saving
