For almost two-thirds of Americans, death isn’t the biggest fear, it’s running out of money before dying.
Many factors and economic pressures cause people to worry about running out of money, according to the 2025 Annual Retirement Study from the Allianz Center for the Future of Retirement, which is part of Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America (Allianz Life).
Top concerns cited by survey respondents include high inflation (54%), Social Security providing insufficient financial support (43%), and high taxes (43%). Inflation was cited as a key concern by 61% of boomers, compared with 56% of millennials and 55% of Gen Xers.
However, fear of running out of money was greatest among Gen Xers (70%) who are in their 40s and 50s and fast approaching retirement, compared with millennials (66%) and boomers (61%) who are over 60 and in many cases already retired.
“With Americans living longer in retirement and facing risks like market volatility, creating a financial strategy so that your money lasts your lifetime is a daunting task,” Kelly LaVigne, VP of consumer insights, Allianz Life, said in a news release. “A strong retirement strategy will go beyond a dollar amount in the bank — it will also address how you will create a reliable income stream from your assets. A financial professional can design a strategy to help ease your worries about running out of money.”
Despite the widespread fear of running out of money, few Americans (23%) have spoken about it with their financial professional. That’s down from 28% in 2024. Asian/Asian American respondents (34%) were most likely to have had these discussions, compared with 22% of white Americans, 28% of Black/African American and 25% of Hispanic Americans.
The top three ways to address this fear cited by respondents were:
