Are You Part of the 86%? Why FOMO and FORO Keep People From Enjoying Retirement

Information is easier to get than ever. Back in the day, investing meant flipping to the numbers section of the local newspaper and calling a broker to buy your very first stock. Today you can open a brokerage account in minutes, move money over, and boom, you're invested. Many employer retirement plans even enroll you automatically and set aside a percentage of every paycheck.

With fewer hurdles to getting started, you'd think we'd all be better set up for retirement, right? You might be surprised.

The Surprising Number

Prudential's 2026 Retirement Pulse survey found that 86% of Americans 50 and older lack confidence about drawing down their retirement savings and enjoying the money they worked so hard to save. Even among people with $500,000 or more in investable assets, 61% still aren't comfortable spending their savings on enjoyment.

So the natural question is: why? You'd think someone with half a million dollars saved would feel set, right? From what I see, it usually comes down to one of two fears.

Fear #1: FOMO, the Fear of Missing Out

Many people over 50 aren't where they hoped to be. A 2024 AARP survey found that 1 in 5 Americans 50 and older have no retirement savings, and 61% worry they won't have enough to last.

I've talked with many people in this situation who feel pressure to take bigger swings with their savings to make up for lost time. They feel like everyone else is getting ahead, and they don't want to miss out.

Fear #2: FORO, the Fear of Running Out

Then there's the other side. Some people have done a great job saving, and they still can't bring themselves to spend. They worry about running out, about taxes, and about healthcare costs. Prudential found that the top reasons people hold back include the uncertain future of Social Security, inflation, and healthcare and long-term care costs.

Inflation is a real concern. The Social Security cost-of-living adjustment for 2027 is projected at around 3.5%, up from 2.8% this year. That's a sign prices are still rising faster than the Federal Reserve's 2% target. When you're already nervous, numbers like that make it even harder to part with your money. The result is a retirement spent guarding the account instead of enjoying the years it was meant for.

Failing to Plan Is Planning to Fail

There's a saying often credited to Benjamin Franklin: "If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail." It's a simple idea, and it applies to everyday life just as much as to money.

With so much information coming at us, many people end up with paralysis by analysis. Or they go the other way and jump on a stock from a Reddit thread promising "huge upside with low risk." Information is great, but what looks like a great opportunity to others might be a setup. Sometimes early buyers are just waiting for the next person to pay a higher price so they can sell their position.

A financial plan helps guard against both traps, the panic of FOMO and the paralysis of FORO. And the research backs that up. Prudential found that pre-retirees with a clear retirement plan were 56% more likely to feel comfortable spending their savings on enjoyment. Yet only 16% of all respondents had a withdrawal strategy.

A Plan Is Only as Good as What Goes Into It

A financial plan isn't bulletproof. It's only as good as the information you put into it. If you put low-quality meat into a meat grinder, you wouldn't expect a gourmet hamburger, right?

When you put accurate information about your situation into a planning tool like a Monte Carlo simulation and focus on your three most important goals, you get a clearer picture. You can see what you may need to retire comfortably, or find out early that you have a gap to close. A Monte Carlo simulation shows a range of hypothetical outcomes. It isn't a prediction or a guarantee, but it gives you a much better starting point than guessing.

How Do You Know You're on the Right Track?

That's the real question, isn't it? How do you know the investments you're choosing and the decisions you're making will hold up over time?

This is where working with a professional can help. Yes, there's more information available than ever, including AI. But AI tools pull from what's publicly available, and they don't know your full situation. A professional can help you organize the right information, test your assumptions, and build a plan around what matters most to you. That way you can enjoy the money you worked so hard to save.

Here's to planning well and living fully.

—Tyler