Hi Reader

“They say you can’t take it with you, but judging by how retirees spend, some of you are giving it a bloody good try.”

This week we’re poking at that bizarre post-work habit of clinging to money like it’s an endangered species. You’ve earned it, you’re allowed to enjoy it, and yet the internal alarms still go off every time you so much as look at a holiday brochure.

So I’m serving up a featured article, a classic podcast from the vault, and one of my sketches, all pointing at the same uncomfortable truth: spending is emotional, not mathematical.

Grab a coffee, settle in, and enjoy the read.

FEATURED ARTICLE

Why Retirees Underspend

The Brutal Truth (With a Hug)

Most retirees aren’t tight with money because they’re sensible. They’re tight because they’re scared.

Not “don’t-leave-the-house” scared. The quieter kind. The kind that looks responsible on paper but feels like a handbrake on your life.

Here’s the uncomfortable bit:

Retirement underspending isn’t a maths problem. It’s a trauma response in a nice cardigan.

And the numbers back it up.

IFS and ONS data show retirees consistently underspend relative to their income, even when they have more than enough. Wealthy households, especially, die with chunky estates they never intended to keep. Not because they planned it, because they froze!

Let’s get under the skin of that.

The Myth You’ve Been Sold

You spent decades being told one thing:

“Don’t run out of money.”

It’s etched into you like a tattoo your parents chose for you.

So you behave as if every pound spent in retirement is an existential threat. As if buying a nice lunch might somehow trigger a financial apocalypse.

And culture doesn’t help.

Financial media screams about “the risk of running out.” Your parents praised saving but never spending. Your workplace celebrated frugality, never enjoyment. And every pension projection you ever saw came with a big, fat warning triangle.

So you enter retirement with a script that says:

“If I relax, I’m screwed.”

But here’s where it gets absurd:

Even the retirees with millions, literal millions... follow the same script.

Because the script isn’t logical, it’s emotional. And emotions don’t give a toss about your balance sheet.

What’s Actually Going On (The Psychology Bit)

This is where behavioural economics quietly pulls up a chair.

1. Loss Aversion: The Brain’s Favourite Overreaction

Your brain hates losing money about twice as much as it enjoys gaining it, it’s a species-level design flaw.

So even if you’re financially bulletproof, your brain still whispers:

“Careful. Don’t cock this up.”

Spending feels like a loss. Not spending feels like safety. Even when it’s bollocks.

2. Fear of Running Out (Otherwise Known as The Boogeyman)

Every retiree knows this one.

No matter how big your pot is, there’s that lingering dread:

“But what if something awful happens?”

You never define what “awful” means, you just act like it’s guaranteed.

Which is ironic, because IFS data shows retirees rarely draw down meaningfully until very late... usually too late for it to matter.

But fear doesn’t check the numbers. Fear just shouts louder.

3. Inherited Scarcity Beliefs: Your Parents Are Still in Your Wallet

Most people live by rules they didn’t write.

Maybe your parents grew up after the war. Maybe you heard “money doesn’t grow on trees” more often than your own name. Maybe every financial conversation in your childhood ended with someone sighing.

Those beliefs don’t disappear just because your pension is now the size of a small nation’s GDP.

They sit inside you, like psychological mothballs, making everything feel fragile.

4. The Identity Shocker: Spending Means “I’m No Longer Earning”

For 30+ years, earning was proof you were valuable. Now you’re meant to switch to spending… and call it joy?

That’s not a transition. That’s an identity crisis.

Money you’ve saved feels like evidence of your competence. Spending it feels like erasing that evidence.

Of course you freeze.

The Consequences (The Bit You Don’t Tell Anyone)

Let’s be honest.

Retirement underspending doesn’t feel like a neutral choice, it feels like tension, like guilt. Like you’re waiting for permission that never arrives.

You say things like:

“We don’t need it.”
“It’s not worth the money.”
“Maybe next year.”

But underneath?

You’re scared to enjoy the life you worked your entire life to earn. You don’t trust yourself. You don’t trust the future. You don’t trust that it’s safe to finally exhale.

You hoard money you’ll never use while hoarding emotions you’ve never named.

And that’s the tragedy.

People die with bank accounts full and lives half-lived. Not because they were careful, but because they were anxious.

Here’s the Shift (No Platitudes, No Vision Boards)

You don’t have a spending problem. You have a safety problem.

Your nervous system doesn’t know you’re retired, it still thinks you’re one bad month away from disaster.

So you protect, conserve, stockpile, and retreat... long after the danger has gone.

The solution isn’t a budget, or a spreadsheet, or a Monte Carlo simulation.

It’s this:

Start asking whether a choice protects your money or protects your anxiety.

They’re not the same thing.

When you spend from fear, you cling. When you spend from safety, you live.

And safety isn’t built from more money. (Some of you have more money than you can reasonably outlive unless you start buying Ferraris like you buy milk.)

Safety is built from knowing this:

You are allowed to use what you saved.
You are allowed to enjoy what you earned.
You are allowed to stop bracing for impact.

Most retirees don’t need financial permission, they need emotional permission.

And that starts with noticing the real driver behind your behaviour.

The Mic-Drop

You’re not saving for the future. You’re saving for your anxiety.

And that’s the real cost. Not the money you keep, but the life you never spend.

PODCAST

A License to Spend Money in Retirement with Michael Finke

I'm delving into the Humans vs Retirement Podcast archives this week, to bring you a brilliant conversation I had with one of the planet's best retirement thinkers and researchers, Michael Finke. We talk about how retirees spend their money and how they can give themselves a license to spend! Listen in now ​​​​

SKETCH OF THE WEEK

Spending is HARDER Than Saving

Most of us were raised in the church of accumulation. We got sermons on saving, discipline, delayed gratification, compounding, resilience. That first half of the sketch, the climb, rewards the behaviours society praises: be sensible, be patient, be prudent. And you did it. You built a career, stacked assets, won the game everyone told you to play. But here’s the twist: the descent is where retirement actually happens… and no one taught you how to walk down the mountain. Spending your money with purpose, joy, and confidence isn’t reckless, it’s an advanced emotional skill. It demands courage, self-trust, and the kind of maturity you don’t learn in budgeting apps. Saving is instinct. Spending well is art.

IN OTHER NEWS

What I've Read This Week

• How To Have A Happy Retirement: 4 Secrets From Research - Barking Up The Wrong Tree​
• Ramit Sethi Tells Us the Biggest Retirement Mistake You Can Make - Kiplinger​

Spreading The Message

• I had the pleasure of delivering the closing keynote at the Compliance and Training Services annual conference on Wednesday, talking to financial planning professionals about The Retirement You Didn't See Coming.
• I was privileged to be a guest on Jordan Grumet's brilliant podcast Earn & Invest, where I talked about a human first retirement. Take a listen HERE​