Allianz Life: Americans Struggle With Shift From Saving to Spending in Retirement

At the end of their careers, many Americans struggle with the idea of spending their hard-earned savings, according to data from the Allianz Life Insurance Co. of North America’s 2026 Annual Retirement Study, released this week.

Of working respondents, 71% reported they expected to feel reluctant spending money in retirement because they will want to preserve their account balance as much as possible. Some 39% of retirees—people actually living their post-career lives—expressed the same hesitancy.

“There are a lot of people who are marginally ready for retirement—in other words, if everything goes exactly right, they’ll be just fine,” says Kelly LaVigne, Allianz’s vice president of consumer insights. “But we know nothing goes exactly according to plan.”

The top reasons cited by respondents for their reluctance to spend in retirement included:

• Outliving savings (50%), at 60% among Generation X;
• Having high future medical expenses or needing long-term care (50%), at 61% among Baby Boomers;
• Experiencing unforeseen costs, such as major home repairs or emergencies (50%), a relatively consistent sentiment across age groups; and
• Having their purchasing power eroded by inflation (48%), a worry expressed mostly by Boomers (53%).

LaVigne recommends that before workers retire, they try living for a few months on the income they expect to have in retirement to see how well they can maintain the lifestyle they desire. Doing so might “raise alarms” or increase people’s comfort levels, he says, allowing them to see how they should adjust their expectations or explore drawdown strategies such as guaranteed income.

Among working adults, Millennials (62%) and members of Gen X (55%) estimated that their spending in retirement would be comparable to less than 75% of their current spending, while only 42% of Boomers thought it would be that low. Of retirees, 45% reported spending less than 75% of their pre-retirement spending, and 55% reported spending 75% or more.

When thinking about their financial futures, 42% of all respondents said they were worried about spending too much money early in their retirement. Slightly fewer (35%) said they were worried they would regret spending too little in the early years.

Allianz conducted its study in January among 1,000 U.S. adults aged 25 and older with an annual household income of at least $50,000 for single people and $75,000 for married people or those with investable assets of at least $150,000.