Don’t Let Fear Steal the Joy from Your Retirement
Retirement brings a new kind of freedom—but it can also bring new fears. And if you’re not careful, that fear can quietly take over, robbing you of the joy and fulfillment this season of life can offer.
In my conversations with retirees—and in my coaching practice—I’ve found one thing to be true: almost everyone is afraid of something in retirement. Whether it’s the fear of running out of money, losing your health, or becoming dependent on others, these anxieties are common. But they don’t have to control you.
The good news is that fear in retirement isn’t new—it’s just showing up in a different form. You’ve already faced uncertainty before, and you can face it again.
You’ve Faced Uncertainty Before—You Can Do It Again
So how do we deal with the fears that we have in retirement?
Realize that no period of life is secure, under our control, and predictable.
As Dan Haylett wrote, “The reality is that none of us can predict the future. Whether we’re 25, 55, or 85, life’s uncertainties are constant.” Don’t Let the Fear of the Future Steal Your Retirement Joy, Humans vs Retirement newsletter, January 14, 2025.
Many of the fears we have in retirement are similar to those we had before we retired. We dealt with them then, and the same approaches will help us to deal with them in retirement.
6 Practical Ways to Keep Fear from Ruining Your Retirement
What are some strategies for dealing with fear in retirement?
- Have a reasonable spending plan. Talk to a financial advisor to develop a spending plan to ensure you won’t run out of money. Learn to spend in retirement. We spent our entire lives saving for retirement, now it’s time to learn to spend some of our savings. See my blog post, Breaking the Habit: Learning to Spend Money in Retirement.
- Make lifestyle choices to prolong health.Good nutrition can help your body to function well and can also reduce the risk of illness and disease. See How Not to Diet, by Dr. Michael Greger. Exercise can keep you strong and mobile for as long as possible.
- Live in the moment. Focus on issues that can be addressed, and let go of hypothetical futures. We only live in the present, not the past or the future. Focus only on the issues you can take meaningful action on, and let go of hypothetical futures that may never come to pass. We spend more time worrying about what might happen in the future than what we do about things that are happening right now.
- Have confidence in your ability to navigate change. Feel confident despite uncertainty. “Just because certainty about the future is off the table, though, it doesn’t mean you can’t feel confident in your abilities to deal with the future when it does eventually arrive.” Oliver Burkeman, Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Make Time for What Counts .
- Develop a sense of gratitude. If it helps, use a journal template with a gratitude prompt that asks you every day, ‘What am I grateful for?’ Use the technique the ancient Stoic philosophers taught, negative visualization. Think about what it would be like if you lost a loved one or something you value—visualizing their loss will help you to appreciate them more.
You’re More Resilient Than You Think
Fear may never fully go away—but it doesn’t have to ruin your retirement.
You’ve lived through unpredictable chapters before. What carried you through then—planning, perspective, flexibility, and faith—can carry you through now.
The future isn’t guaranteed. But neither is disaster. You don’t need certainty to move forward—you need confidence in your ability to meet whatever comes.
So take care of your health. Build a smart spending plan. Live in the moment. And when you find yourself slipping into fear, come back to what’s right in front of you—the people, possibilities, and daily moments that still bring you joy.
This is your time. Don’t let fear steal it.
AI Note: I wrote this blog post myself, using my own words and thoughts for the initial draft. I used AI only to suggest headlines, section headings, and text improvements.
When I post links to product pages on Amazon, my links include a referral code, which allows me to receive a small percentage of the sale when products are purchased after clicking on the link. While the amount I receive is small, it helps to defray some of the costs of running this site and gives me a small vested interest in having readers purchase products using these links. That said, I strive to only include links to products I believe are worth purchasing.