Is Your Cautious Retirement Spending Doing More Harm Than Good?

Fear of running out of money leads many retirees to spend far less than they safely could. Elise Amendola/APWhen we were children, it was common to be afraid of the boogeyman. As we age, the boogeyman gets replaced with a new fear:  running out of money in retirement.This concern is understandable given that so many Americans are now responsible for not only building their retirement savings but also deciding how much they should pay themselves annually in retirement.  It’s a problem many don’t feel adequately prepared to solve, especially when failure means a funding shortfall at the end of life. Limit Your Spending, Limit Your LifestyleRecent research from Morningstar’s Behavioral Insights Group finds that half of retirees opt for highly simplified approaches to determining their retirement spending, such as calculating their current expenses, just spending dividends, or anchoring on required minimum distributions (RMDs).