Two groups of Americans appear to be on opposite ends of the retirement spectrum. One group is terrified of running out of money. The other group has plenty of money and refuses to touch it. According to the 2026 Annual Retirement Study from the Allianz Center for the Future of Retirement, 67% of Americans say they worry more about running out of money than about death itself, up from 57% in 2022.
At the same time, a separate strand of research from the Employee Benefit Research Institute finds that about a third of retirees still have 100% or more of their initial savings remaining by their mid-80s. Both behaviors trace back to the same missing piece: a written plan for turning a lump sum into monthly income.
The Fear Side of the Ledger
The Allianz survey puts numbers on an anxiety that has been building for years. Generation X carries the concern most heavily, with 73% saying they worry about outliving their money, compared with 69% of millennials and 59% of boomers. The most cited drivers are high inflation, named by 57% of respondents, and high healthcare costs, named by 53%. Both concerns show up in the underlying economic data. The Consumer Price Index sits at 332.6 as of June 2026, in the 80th percentile of its 12-month range, while personal consumption on healthcare services has climbed to $3,741.0 billion at an annualized rate.
Consumer psychology has followed prices. The University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index is at 49.5 in June 2026, well below the 60 threshold associated with recessionary readings and in the 9th percentile of the survey’s history. Household savings behavior mirrors the mood. The personal savings rate has dropped from 6.2% in the first quarter of 2024 to 2.8% in the second quarter of 2026, even as per capita disposable income rose to $68,958. Higher income, lower savings, and elevated prices are the combination fueling the 67% number.
The Hoarding Side of the Ledger
Retirees who have crossed the finish line often act as if they are still running the race. Industry reporting on the Allianz research shows that 39% of retirees refuse to draw down their savings just to keep account balances intact, while another 32% describe spending down assets as an uncomfortable prospect. EBRI’s data adds a longer arc to the picture. Roughly a third of retirees still hold 100% or more of their starting nest egg by their mid-80s, yet about a fifth of those who retired with more than $500,000 had less than 20% remaining at that same age. The distribution is distinctly bimodal, with underspenders clustering at one end and depleters at the other.
The economic environment reinforces the caution. The FDIC national average yield on 12-month CDs is 1.68% as of July 2026, offering little real return after inflation is accounted for. The 2026 Social Security cost-of-living adjustment was set at 2.8%, close to the headline CPI but thin relative to healthcare inflation. Credit card APRs remain at a record high of 20.94%, and the credit card delinquency rate is 2.92%. Retirees watching those numbers see a rational case for keeping the balance untouched.
The Shared Fix
Allianz identifies one variable that separates the anxious from the prepared: a written plan. 48% of Americans do not have a written financial plan, and the gap is widest among Gen X, where 58% have no written plan. Market volatility widens the same crack. 57% of respondents feel anxious about their financial future after a market drop, and 34% typically withdraw money from investments to avoid further losses during a downturn, a reaction that locks in the very shortfall they fear.
A written withdrawal plan addresses both problems in a single document. For workers still in the accumulation phase, it turns an abstract fear of the future into a concrete target contribution rate, a target balance, and an expected income figure. For retirees, it converts an accumulated portfolio into a defined monthly paycheck, which takes some of the psychological sting out of spending. EBRI’s Craig Copeland, quoted by CNBC, put the challenge this way: “This will be the foremost challenge in retirement: figuring out how to maximize retirement but still have a buffer at the end.”
The Allianz and EBRI datasets describe the same underlying condition from two angles. Fear of outliving savings and reluctance to spend those savings are both symptoms of an unknown: how much can safely come out each year, for how long, under what assumptions. The 67% who worry and the 39% who hoard are answering that question with silence. A written income plan replaces silence with a number, which changes behavior on both ends.
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