10 Money Habits Retirees Who Don’t Run Short on Cash Steer Clear Of

Some retirees manage to make their savings last for decades, while others with similar nest eggs run out much sooner. The gap is not always about luck or even the size of the portfolio.

In EBRI's latest Retirement Confidence Survey, 73% of retirees said they expected to have enough money to live comfortably in retirement, down from 78% the year before. Whatever the sentiment, the same avoidable errors keep showing up. Here are 10 of them.

Keeping withdrawals fixed no matter what happens in the market

Retirees who never change their withdrawals during market declines may end up selling more investments than planned. That can lock in losses and leave less money in the portfolio to recover later.

Fidelity's guidance calls for withdrawing no more than 4% to 5% of savings in the first year of retirement, then raising that amount for inflation each year after. Its analysis assumes a 90% success rate, with results depending on the time horizon and investment mix.

Still, that range is only a starting point, not a rigid formula. Many planners favor a flexible strategy that trims spending in tough years and allows a bit more room in strong ones.

Going into retirement with no cash buffer

A cash reserve can help cover expenses without forcing retirees to sell stocks during a downturn. Without that cushion, a bad year can leave a lasting mark on the portfolio.

Many households have little in reserve. A 2019 EBRI review of Federal Reserve data found that only about half of workers said they had an emergency fund large enough to cover three months of expenses. Among families with a working head, just 20.1% had liquid savings greater than three months of income.

Those figures refer to workers rather than retirees, but they show how common it is to have little or no buffer. T. Rowe Price recommends that retirees consider keeping enough cash on hand to cover one to two years of spending.

Claiming Social Security before doing the math

Starting benefits at 62 rather than full retirement age can permanently reduce a monthly check by as much as 30%, according to the Social Security Administration. For someone with a full retirement age of 67, a $1,000 benefit would fall to $700 at 62. The break-even calculation matters. Claiming at 62 would bring in about $42,000 before the larger payment would have started at 67. The extra $300 a month would then take about 140 months, or until around age 78 1/2, to make up the difference, before accounting for cost-of-living increases.

Delaying past full retirement age works the other way. For people born in 1943 or later, delayed retirement credits add 8% a year until age 70. Jason Fichtner, executive director of the LIMRA Retirement Income Institute and a former acting deputy commissioner of Social Security, has said that anyone who can afford to wait should delay until 70, despite the program's long-term funding issues, because the larger benefit is protected against inflation for life.

Those increases amount to real money. Social Security has announced a 3.6% cost-of-living adjustment that begins with January 2027 payments.

One change in the headlines is only cosmetic. Congress has passed a bill that would rename the claiming ages so that 62 becomes the "minimum benefit age," full retirement age becomes the "standard benefit age," and 70 becomes the "maximum benefit age." The House passed it in December 2025, and the Senate followed at the end of September 2026, sending it to the president. As of late October 2026, it had not become law, and it would not alter the ages themselves or the way benefits are calculated.

Carrying high-interest debt into retirement

Debt does not stop when work ends, and it can feel heavier without a paycheck. In EBRI's latest survey, 65% of workers said debt is a problem for their household, and 3 in 10 retirees said debt hurts their ability to live comfortably in retirement.

Credit card balances and other high-interest obligations can force larger withdrawals just to cover interest. That drains money from a portfolio that no longer gets replenished by salary, which is why many retirees try to eliminate costly debt before leaving the workforce.

Underestimating health care expenses and the Medicare income lookback

Medicare's standard Part B premium is $202.90 a month in 2026. Higher earners pay more through IRMAA, the income-related monthly adjustment amount. The timing catch is that the surcharge is based on a tax return from two years earlier, so 2026 premiums are determined using 2024 income.

A one-time jump in income, such as a Roth conversion or a large capital gain, can raise premiums two years later, long after the money is gone.

In 2026, the surcharge starts above $109,000 in modified adjusted gross income for individual filers and $218,000 for married couples filing jointly. It rises in stages to an extra $487 a month at the top, which begins at $500,000 for single filers and $750,000 for joint filers. Medicare had not released 2027 premiums or income thresholds as of late October 2026.

Long-term care is another expense retirees often underestimate. CareScout's 2025 Cost of Care Survey, released in March 2026, found that the national median cost of a private nursing home room was $355 a day, or $129,575 a year. The median for assisted living was $6,200 a month, or $74,400 a year.

Becoming the family financial safety net for adult children

Many parents continue helping grown children with money. In a 2025 Ameriprise survey of parents with adult children, 63% said they help cover ongoing costs, including living expenses and phone bills, for children age 21 and older. In any one month, that may seem manageable. Over time, it can become expensive.

Deana Healy, vice president of financial planning and advice at Ameriprise, has said parents should consider how the support they provide adult children today affects their own goals, especially retirement. Without a paycheck to replace it, a depleted retirement account can be difficult to rebuild.

Allowing fees to chip away at returns

Fund expenses reduce investment returns, while advisory fees may be charged directly to an account. Both can leave less money available for retirement spending. A Morningstar analysis reported by AARP in 2022 found that paying 1% a year to a fund manager, an advisor, or both lowered the withdrawal rate a retiree could safely start with by about 0.4 percentage points.

Over a retirement that may last 30 years, even a small recurring fee difference can mean a noticeably smaller balance or a shorter period before the money runs out.

Keeping too much money in one stock or former employer

A large position in a single company, often stock from a former employer, may feel reassuring because it is familiar. It is not. Bad news for that one company can hurt a retiree's income in ways that a diversified portfolio would not.

When too much retirement income depends on one stock, the rest of the portfolio may not provide enough protection if that company runs into trouble.

Treating the 4% rule as a guarantee instead of a guideline

The 4% rule was never intended to be a promise. Morningstar's December 2025 research estimated a 3.9% initial withdrawal rate for steady, inflation-adjusted spending over 30 years, with a 90% probability that the money would last. Some flexible strategies supported starting rates as high as 5.7% in exchange for changes in spending.

Other research suggests higher rates. Bill Bengen, the financial planner who created the original 4% rule, has said he now recommends a starting rate of 5.25% to 5.5% for today's retirees, in line with his 2025 book, "A Richer Retirement." The range itself is the lesson: a withdrawal rate works best as a guide that can be adjusted, not as a rule written in stone.

Skipping the yearly review of withdrawals

The habit that ties the whole list together is an annual checkup. Retirees whose money lasts typically compare withdrawals with how the portfolio actually performed, then make adjustments.

A strong year may allow for a little more spending. A weaker year may call for a temporary pullback. That yearly review turns the 4% rule, or any withdrawal plan, into a strategy that responds to real conditions instead of a one-time guess.

The bottom line

Most of these mistakes are not really about how much someone saved. They are about habits: whether withdrawals change with the market, whether debt and fees stay under control, and whether the plan gets reviewed instead of running automatically.

Retirees who remain confident over the long haul tend to treat their withdrawal rate as something to revisit each year, not a decision made once and forgotten. For anyone who wants help turning that review into specific moves, a financial professional can run the numbers against the full financial picture. A clear income plan can also help retirees avoid running out of money in retirement.

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