Once upon a time, a retirement free of fear was defined as “having enough money.” In fact, about 20 years ago I even wrote a book called “The Savage Number; How Much Money Do You Really Need to Retire?”
But now that the huge Baby Boomer generation is either in or closely approaching retirement, it has become clear that beyond having “enough” money to start a retirement, other worries can take away the joy of those supposed “golden years.”

In fact, as boomers take stock of their retirement plan assets, they may even be shocked at how much money they accumulated through their monthly payroll contributions to a company 40l(k) retirement plan. A generational bull market leveraged those payroll deductions into astounding nest eggs, as the stock market is trading near all-time highs.

And that leads to the first retirement fear: It may be “enough” money now — but what if the stock market “crashes” and wipes out a huge chunk of your retirement savings, right at the start of your retirement?

It’s a real fear, and not without precedent. The bear markets of the dot-com crash and the 2008 financial crisis wiped up nearly half the value of the stock market indices. Of course, if you stuck it out in the S&P 500 stock index, you came out far ahead in the long run. But now, in retirement, will you have the courage to stick it out? How long is your long run?

Retirement Fear Index
Stock market gyrations are not the only retirement fear. A new website www.RetirementFearIndex.com quantifies the top ten fears of retirees. Surprisingly the risk of market volatility comes in only sixth on the monthly assessment of retirement fears.

The top five fears include: Healthcare and Long Term Care Costs; Outliving Savings/Longevity Risk; Social Security and Pension Insolvency; Inflation and Rising Everyday Costs; and Cognitive Decline/Loss of Independence.

Facing our fears is the first step toward coming up with practical solutions, says David Conti – a former Fidelity executive in their wealth management division for 17 years, and now a certified retirement coach who created the Retirement Fear Index.

Conti says: “The retirement industry talks constantly about risk. Longevity risk. Inflation risk. Sequence-of-returns risk. Healthcare risk. Policy risk. Market risk. . . . But ordinary people do not usually make decisions based on risk models. They make decisions based on fear.”

His goal: “I reframed risk discussions as actionable fears and incorporated investor psychology and retirement coaching perspectives into the index concept.”

Conti says that fears fall into three categories:
• True Fears: These are “actionable concerns” about which you can take protective action such as diversifying your investments.
• Anxiety: These are gnawing concerns about what could happen. You deal with those by becoming educated so you save more, spend less, and put an effort into learning ways to adjust your situation to make your retirement more secure.
• Worry: Conti describes these are the things that wake you up in the middle of the night, but which you cannot control. You can’t do anything about the national debt or the impact of AI on your child’s career – but you do worry about them.

How to Deal With Retirement Fears
The first step is to have the conversation – with yourself, your spouse, and your trusted advisor. Conti says the critical issue is to identify all your concerns, literally to give them a name. Only then can you sort them into categories, focusing on those you can remedy by taking action.

A key ingredient in this process is having trusted help. Long time readers of this column know that I always recommend you deal with a fee-only FIDUCIARY financial planner. My go-to source of identifying a carefully-vetted planner who meets these criteria is Wealthramp.com
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The Fear Index has been trending upward since Conti first created this monthly analysis earlier this year. And that is not a surprise, given the economic headlines we all see every day. The Index is a monthly meta-analysis — and a sentiment map — of what retirees and pre-retirees are actually worried about, notes Conti.

It tracks which retirement fears are running hot, which are cooling, and where people’s attention is concentrated each month.

But as a retirement coach, Conti says high level of concern doesn’t automatically mean retirees are behaving irrationally. Some fears are justified. Some anxieties point toward risks worth preparing for. And some worries are exactly what motivates good retirement planning.

So don’t lose sleep unnecessarily. Don’t give yourself an ulcer, worrying about retirement issues that are better dealt with by planning. And don’t let emotions overrule a sensible plan. As Conti says, good retirement planning helps reconnect emotion with evidence. And that’s The Savage Truth.