Hi Reader

Welcome back to The Retirement Fix, and if you’re new here, grab a brew and settle in. This week we’re diving into risk… not the investment kind with charts, jargon, and people pretending they understand volatility. I mean the human kind. The stuff that actually decides whether your retirement feels exhilarating or flat as a week-old pint.

Because the people who end up with the most meaningful, joyful, “bloody hell, I didn’t know life could feel like this” chapters aren’t the ones who cling to comfort. They’re the ones willing to lean into uncertainty, try something new, and risk looking a bit ridiculous in the process.

And if that idea sparks equal parts curiosity and “you’ve got to be kidding me,” good! That’s usually the sign you’re standing right on the edge of something worth doing.

Hope you enjoy this week’s edition... let’s jump in.

FEATURED ARTICLE

The Real Risk in Retirement is Being Scared of Risk

“The Risk Problem: And Why It Gets Worse When You Retire.”

There’s a big slightly brutal truth no one tells you about retirement.

Not the financial industry, not your well-meaning friends, not even that retirement coach on YouTube with the suspiciously white teeth.

Here it is: Most people don’t fear running out of money, they fear taking risks that might make them feel stupid.

Financially stupidm socially stupid and emotionally naked.

So they retreat, they shrink, and they “play it safe.”

And it’s this, not market crashes or inflation, that slowly suffocates an otherwise good life.

Because here’s the weird paradox: The moment life opens up, most people close down.

Welcome to the psychology of risk in retirement.

The Strange Science of Why Some People Take Risks and Others Don’t

Let’s start with the basics.

Humans aren’t wired to “play it safe.” We’re wired to survive... which is not the same thing.

And when it comes to survival, your brain has two main settings:

1. Seek reward
2. Avoid danger

Different people have different ratios of these two instincts, and yes, science backs this up.

A landmark study published in Nature Neuroscience found that people have varying levels of dopamine receptor availability in the brain’s reward system. In plain English: some people’s brains get a bigger chemical “yes mate!” when things go well, and others get a bigger “oh hell no” when things might go wrong.

Add in genetics, like variations of the DRD4 gene linked to novelty seeking, and suddenly it makes sense why your mate Dave jumps off cliffs for fun while your cousin Helen still checks the oven three times before leaving the house.

But dopamine isn’t the whole story.

There’s also:

• Upbringing. If you grew up in chaos, unpredictability becomes normal. If you grew up in safety, unpredictability feels like a threat.
• Social conditioning. Especially in the UK, where “don’t make a fuss” has been grafted into our DNA.
• Your historical wins and losses. Psychologists call this “risk learning.” If life rewarded your past jumps, you’re more likely to leap again. If it punished you? Your brain slams the brakes, even if the current situation is completely different.

And then there’s the big one…

The Retirement Effect: Why Risk Aversion Gets Worse With Age

Here’s where it gets interesting.

A 2020 study in Psychology and Aging found that risk-taking declines significantly after age 55, not because people become more sensible, but because they become more protective of their identity.

When you’re 30, risk feels like part of the adventure. When you’re 60, risk feels like something that can “take things away.”

Not just money, but competence, status, self-worth, and the sense that you still “have it.”

This is why so many people cling to what they know right at the moment life invites them to expand.

Retirement is supposed to be freedom, but psychologically? It triggers a weird kind of self-preservation mode.

You’ve spent decades building a version of yourself. Now you’re terrified of cracking it.

The Hidden Cost of Playing It Safe

Let’s talk consequences, because the fallout from avoiding risk isn’t minor. It’s existential.

Research from the Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology shows that retirees who avoid novelty and challenge experience significantly higher levels of anxiety and lower life satisfaction in the first 3–5 years after leaving work.

Why?

Because risk-avoidance isn’t just a behavioural pattern, it’s an identity.

If you avoid risk long enough, you don’t just dodge discomfort. You dodge growth, purpose, connection, confidence, and meaning.

You start repeating days instead of living them.

And you wake up one morning thinking: “Is this it? Did I really work 40 years for this?”

The saddest part? Most people don’t realise the cause is risk-aversion. They blame their finances, their health, their partner, and “getting older.”

When in reality, it’s the lack of psychological aliveness.

Without risk, even small, gentle risk, life flatlines.

Can You Teach Yourself to Take More Risks? Yes. But Not How You Think

This is where I’m supposed to give you a checklist. “Seven ways to become a bold, courageous retiree!”

But that would be bollocks.

Because you don’t learn to take risks through technique, you learn it through exposure.

Think of your risk threshold like a muscle. If you don’t use it, it weakens. If you challenge it, slowly and consistently, it strengthens.

Neuroscience backs this. A 2018 study on neuroplasticity showed that the brain rewires itself based on “incremental stretch experiences.” Not big leaps. Micro-leaps.

So the trick isn’t to suddenly do something mad like sell everything and move to Portugal.

The trick is to choose one thing each week that feels slightly uncomfortable:

• Speak up in the walking group.
• Try a new class where you know no one.
• Invest a small amount in something unfamiliar.
• Say “yes” before you’re ready.
• Ask for something you usually wouldn’t.

Small risk. Small reward. Small identity shift.

Repeat that for six months and you don’t merely “get better” at taking risks.

You become someone who takes risks.

And that’s the entire point.

Why Risk Matters More in Retirement Than Any Other Time in Life

Here’s the part most people miss:

Retirement is not the end of your life. It’s the end of your excuses.

When you’re younger, you can hide from your unrealised dreams behind responsibility.

Kids. Work. Mortgage. Career trajectory. “Not the right time.”

In retirement, those excuses evaporate, and what’s left is the raw truth of what you actually want, and what you’re terrified to pursue.

Risk is important now not because you have something to prove, but because you have something to reclaim:

• Your sense of possibility.
• Your individuality.
• Your aliveness.
• Your ability to change.
• Your unfinished stories.

The biggest risk in retirement isn’t doing something bold.

It’s doing nothing new.

People age faster when they stop challenging themselves. Their world shrinks, their courage shrinks, and their imagination shrinks.

And then their life shrinks with it.

Risk is the antidote.

Not big, flashy risk. Just enough risk to remind your brain: “I’m still here. And I’m still becoming.”

The Mic-Drop

In the end, retirement doesn’t ask you to be fearless, it asks you to stop being ruled by fear.

To take the risk of being seen again. Of being wrong again. Of being alive again.

Because the real tragedy isn’t falling. It’s never jumping.

And the saddest sentence you’ll ever say in hindsight is:

“I wasn’t afraid of losing anything... I was afraid of living something.”

PODCAST

Ep 99 - How to Retire Well in 2026: The 5 Key Areas to Get Right

This week, I’m cutting through the noise and breaking down the five things that genuinely determine whether you retire well, not someday, but starting now. Forget the complicated spreadsheets and vague “we’ll be fine” thinking. If you want a retirement that feels exciting, connected, healthy and human, these are the five foundations that matter: money clarity, health you can rely on, purpose that pulls you forward, relationships that actually nourish you, and the courage to stop waiting and start living. Listen in now ​​​​

SKETCH OF THE WEEK

The Retirement Fear We Never Admit

This little sketch says the quiet thing out loud: most retirees aren’t actually terrified of running out of money, they’re terrified of looking stupid. We pretend the big monster under the bed is financial ruin, when in reality it’s the emotional risk of trying something new, stepping outside the familiar, or daring to do the thing your inner critic says you’ve “no business” doing at your age. The bar for “running out of money” is usually far lower than the spreadsheets suggest. But the bar for “taking a risk that might make me feel foolish” towers over everything. And until we recognise that, we’ll keep blaming our portfolio for a fear that lives squarely between our ears.

IN OTHER NEWS

What I've Read This Week

• A Real Retirement Plan Is More Than Money - ThinkAdvisor​
• Why We Now Buy Water and Call Walking Exercise (And What It Means for Your Retirement) - Humans vs Retirement​

Spreading The Message

• I was a guest on the excellent Modern Financial Wellness Podcast where I discussed How To Thrive in Retirement​