3 Strategies to Conquer Retirement Spending Anxiety, as Recommended by a Financial Expert

3 Ways To Overcome Fear of Spending in Retirement, According to a Financial Expert

James Canole is the founder of the financial advice website Root Financial Partners, and is a CFP professional/financial advisor whose podcast, “Ready for Retirement,” helps guide people toward a comfortable and prosperous nest egg for their retirement years. On a recent episode of his podcast series, Canole spoke to a retiree facing a fundamental challenge: how to comfortably spend money in your retirement.

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Canole introduced his guest, “Ben,” as a man who “saved aggressively” so that he could retire at the age of 53. However, while Ben is enjoying his retirement, he’s found it incredibly difficult to spend money on certain things. Growing up with a single mom, Ben came to appreciate what “a very important channel for us” money was, and how much he needed to value and appreciate it. As he became older, and aggressively saved in order to build a portfolio upon which he could retire early, his value of money only increased.

As such, Ben has found that the major issue for his retirement has been the struggle to give himself permission to spend the money that he saved and earned. “I hate to say that I’m denying myself,” he lamented, “but I oftentimes feel that that’s the case right now.”

Making the transition from “a saving to a spending mindset” was a problem he never anticipated, but it is one he has had to confront now, to the point that his retirement spending actually continues to decrease. Through Ben’s discussion with Canole, however, the two worked out ways to overcome the fear of spending and allow Ben to enjoy his golden years.

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Give Yourself Permission To Spend

You’ve worked hard for your retirement, and you’ve planned ahead. This is the moment you’ve been saving for. If you don’t spend on yourself now, when will you?

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Commit to a Spending Decision

Once you book a vacation, or plan a big purchase, stick to it. Ben noted that he booked an expensive vacation for he and his family, and “once I made the decision, then I didn’t regret it at all and I kept thinking that I purposely set up those funds at the beginning of the year so I could do things like that.”

Create Spending Funds

Ben found it especially easy to go on that vacation because he’d pulled all the necessary funds for it out of his retirement portfolio months earlier, and created a “vacation fund.” By making that leap well ahead of time, he found it much easier to commit to the spending than if he’d withdrawn the money a little at a time as the vacation was happening.

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Remember, your retirement is what you’ve worked so hard for! While you should never overspend, now is the time to treat yourself to the life of comfort you deserve.

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