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Running out of money in retirement frightens many Americans more than death, yet the federal government does not track how often retirees actually exhaust their savings. The best available long term research reveals a stark divide based on starting wealth and pension access.

Two in three people surveyed by Allianz Life in January said running out of money worried them more than death. That figure was up from 57% in 2022, reflecting widespread anxiety about whether household savings can support decades of retirement.

The absence of an official count leaves researchers to follow retired households over time. Those studies indicate that Americans entering retirement with substantial savings often preserve much of their wealth, while people with limited assets and no pension frequently lose most of what they accumulated.

"A person can work full time their entire life, do everything right and still age into poverty," AARP Foundation President Claire Casey said Thursday during a press call about rising poverty among older adults. For many people, working after 65 is not a choice but "the only way to survive."

Social Security is a central source of income for retirees who have little savings. Those benefits face a threatened 22% cut after 2032, when the program's main trust fund will run out if Congress does not act.

The Employee Benefit Research Institute, a nonpartisan Washington research group, supplied the most recent assessment in May. By tracking retired households over time, EBRI found that roughly one third still possessed at least as much as their original savings after two decades.

The results varied sharply by household resources. Median savings declined 43% among the group with the fewest assets, 30% among the middle group, and 42% among households at the top.

Although those declines may look broadly similar, the dollar amounts tell a more troubling story for retirees who started with less. The lowest asset group began with median savings of about $34,000, and more than half had approximately $17,000 or less two decades later.

Those findings apply only to households that entered retirement with at least some money set aside. Millions of older Americans have neither a retirement account nor pension income to supplement Social Security.

About 11.6 million households headed by someone 65 or older fall into that category, representing roughly three in 10. The figure comes from an Investopedia analysis of the Federal Reserve's 2022 Survey of Consumer Finances, the most recent edition available.

Research from the University of California, San Francisco offers another measure of financial vulnerability near the end of life. About one in four Americans 65 and older who died between 2000 and early 2021 held less than $6,000 in net worth, including home equity, during their final interview before death.

The outlook for current workers also carries serious risks. Morningstar's retirement model projects that 41% of United States households will run short after long term care costs are included, compared with 26% when those expenses are excluded, according to a May 2025 report.

Even when private savings are depleted, Social Security continues paying for life. Census Bureau data released last week showed the program kept 29 million people above the supplemental poverty line in 2025, with more than 70% of them age 65 or older.

Without Social Security, the older adult poverty rate would have been 32 percentage points higher. For retirees who exhaust personal assets, the monthly government benefit may therefore become their only remaining source of retirement income.

Working longer can improve the likelihood that savings will last. Morningstar's 2024 model found that retiring at 70 instead of 65 reduced the shortfall rate to 28% from 45%, providing additional years to save and fewer retirement years to finance.

Delaying Social Security can also increase lifetime monthly income. Benefits rise 8% for each year a person waits beyond full retirement age, through age 70, meaning someone whose full retirement age is 67 receives 24% more by waiting until 70.

Traditional pension income provides another significant cushion, but only about three in 10 people age 65 and older have that benefit. Among low asset households followed by EBRI, those without a pension lost 89% of median savings over two decades, while those with a pension lost 29%.

DISCLAIMER: GoldInvestors.news is not a registered investment, legal or tax advisor or broker/dealer. All investment/financial opinions expressed by GoldInvestors.news are from the personal research and experience of the owner of the site and are intended as educational material. Although best efforts are made to ensure that all information is accurate and up to date, occasionally unintended errors and misprints may occur.