The Retirement Mistake Worse Than Going Broke
Running out of money isn't the most heartbreaking retirement error. There's one mistake that cuts even deeper.
Most retirement planning obsesses over one fear: depleting your savings before you die. Portfolio drawdown strategies, safe withdrawal rates, sequence-of-returns risk — it's all aimed at keeping your account from hitting zero. That's legitimate. But according to MarketWatch, going broke isn't actually the saddest financial mistake retirees make.
The source doesn't spell out the specific mistake in the preview, but the framing is telling. When financial writers say something is *sadder* than running out of money, they're pointing at regret — the kind that comes from hoarding wealth you never enjoyed, relationships you underinvested in, or experiences you delayed until your body said no. Money unspent on a life unlived is its own kind of loss.
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This is the tension every retiree faces: spend too freely and risk poverty in old age, spend too cautiously and risk dying with a fat account and a thin life. Neither extreme is a win. The psychological grip of scarcity thinking can keep even well-funded retirees locked in austerity mode long after the math says they can relax.
If you're in accumulation mode right now, this is worth internalizing early. The goal isn't maximum terminal wealth — it's calibrated spending that funds the life you actually planned for. Building that habit before retirement beats trying to reprogram it after decades of saving reflexes. Your future self will thank you for spending intentionally, not just saving aggressively.
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