Work Longer To Avoid Running Out of Money in Retirement

This week on the Retirement Quick Tips Podcast, I'm talking about a study from the Allianz Center for the Future of Retirement that found something striking: 64% of Americans are more worried about running out of money in retirement than they are of death itself.

Yesterday, I talked about how spending less and saving more is one of the best ways to prepare for retirement and avoid running out of money. But here's the catch—that strategy works best if you still have plenty of time before retirement.

Let me give you an example. If you start saving just $100 a month at age 20, and it grows at 7% a year, by age 65 you'll have around $350,000—even without ever increasing that contribution. That's the magic of compounding.

But what if you don't start until much later? Let's say you add $1,000 a month, but you're only five years away from retirement. At the same growth rate, that only gets you about $70,000. The lesson? Time is the real driver of growth. Without it, saving more—while still important—has a much smaller impact.

So what do you do if you're close to retirement and feeling behind? The answer is simple: work longer.