(Yahoo! Finance) - Is running out of money a scarier prospect than your own death?
If you said yes, you have plenty of company.
Nearly 7 in 10 Americans worry more about running out of money than dying, according to new data from Allianz. That’s sharply up from the 57% who felt that way four years ago.
One pressing reason for the worry: Many people already know they don’t save as much as they should for retirement.
Some 73% of Gen Xers hold this fear. They are, after all, the group getting closest to retirement, unlike millennials, who have longer to save, or boomers, who are already there.
There may be some basis for feeling that dying is not as frightening as being broke in your 80s and beyond.
“Dying is inevitable,” said Benedict Guttman-Kenney, an assistant professor of finance at Rice University. “It is pretty sensible for people to not dwell on death as, thankfully, for most people, death is a far-off event and one largely beyond their control.
“In contrast, running out of money is a very real risk that is regularly faced by American households.”
Part of the reason why money worries are so stressful is that household finances are complicated. Households have incomes and expenditures that vary month to month and have multiple accounts to manage.
“Working out how much to spend and save is not straightforward and can be especially challenging for those less confident with numbers,” he said. “No wonder this is more fear-inducing than thinking about death.”
In addition to feeling distressed about not saving adequately, the feeling is compounded by panic when markets sink.
Half of savers admit they immediately check their retirement accounts after a market plunge, the Allianz survey found. Why that’s bad: One-third then cash out from retirement account investments to stave off losing more, according to the findings.
“This growing worry about running out of money doesn’t look like fleeting anxiety but a reaction to real financial pressures,” said Kelly LaVigne, vice president of Consumer Insights at Allianz Life. “The risks are real, and the concerns driving this are ongoing and happening all at once — inflation, increasing healthcare costs, market volatility.”
“These risks can all deplete retirement assets faster than anticipated. Still this reaction is amplified by a lack of preparation too.”
By Kerry Hannon
April 28, 2026
