Americans fear running out of money before running out of life

It seems Americans are more afraid of running out of money in retirement than they are of dying. In addition, according to a recent study, many small-business owners are running the risk of coming up money-short if they’re banking on their businesses to fund their retirement, either by selling the business or having it contribute to continuing income.

The 2025 Annual Retirement Study from the Allianz Center for the Future of Retirement surveyed 1,000 adults 25 or older in the 48 contiguous U.S. states. Respondents had an annual household income of $50,000 and above if single, $75,000 and above if married or partnered, or had investable assets of $150,000 or more.

Sixty-four percent of respondents are more fearful of their money running out than they are of dying. Issues cited as the main fear-generating culprits are inflation (54%), Social Security not providing enough income (43%) and high taxes (43%). People in their 40s and 50s are more concerned about retirement savings than baby boomers (born between 1946 and 1964).

Americans have been warned for years that they aren’t saving enough for retirement. For a percentage of Americans, income and obligations make saving difficult. For others, they’re spending what they could be saving because tomorrow seems like a long way off. Until it isn’t. We like to think there’s time to do what needs to be done. A simple exercise can disabuse us of that notion: How often do we think of something we did 10 or 20 years ago, and are stunned by how quickly time has passed? That’s true going forward as well.

Small-business owners face their own retirement hurdles. A pre-COVID study by SCORE, a small-business advocacy organization that partners with the U.S. Small Business Administration, showed 34% of entrepreneurs had no retirement savings plan, and 40% weren’t confident that by age 65 they’d have enough money to retire.

The reasons, in descending order, were not making enough profit; used retirement savings to invest in the business; planned to sell the business to fund retirement; didn’t plan to retire; or didn’t see the need to save. With the struggles businesses faced during the pandemic, it’s doubtful these numbers have improved.

What to do?

Start saving. Easy to say, harder to do. But there’s no alternative. How much you should save depends on your income and age. The decision about what’s more important, spending now or saving for the long term, rests with you.

Regardless of your age, meet with an experienced accountant or financial adviser to help chart your savings course. The older you are, the more important this becomes. For small-business owners, finding and consulting with an experienced business retirement planner is the No. 1 thing to do. Now. Together, design a retirement plan that takes into account the next few years and what happens after that, and develop an eventual exit strategy. Don’t depend on your business’s value to usher you into comfortable retirement. Market conditions could be a boon or a bust for your business.

There are websites aplenty that offer advice, if not certainty, on what you should do in terms of retirement. But that’s an inexpert way of approaching a professional-level challenge. Find a professional, sit down with them and see if you like what they say.

Chances are high that you’ll like it better than worrying about your money running out before your time runs out.

This originally appeared in KnoxNews.