I’m 63 with $850K saved for retirement, but I can’t stop checking my balance. How can I fix my financial anxiety?
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As markets swing wildly from one headline to the next, a growing number of retirees are discovering volatility doesn’t just threaten their portfolios — it threatens their peace of mind.
A 2025 Allianz survey found that 64% of respondents are more worried about running out of money during retirement than about dying (1).
With so much worry going around, is everybody justified in feeling that way?
Let’s consider Mike, who is retired at age 63 and has a healthy $850,000 nest egg. On paper, he should feel secure. Yet instead of enjoying his days, he finds himself opening his retirement account app five times a day, watching the balance tick up and down with the market.
Each dip sparks anxiety: What if I run out? What if this isn’t enough?
While Mike might look like he’s doing well, he’s still burdened by the worry faced by so many retirees. No matter how well you prepare for retirement, you may still find yourself anxious about money in your golden years.
And once that worry creeps in, even a sizable nest egg can feel fragile — especially when your account balances are fluctuating daily with the market.
But there are still ways to stop worrying and enjoy retirement.
Here’s how to get to a healthier place and avoid the constant stress of worrying about your financial future.
Looking at Mike, he actually has a pretty solid retirement plan.
To start, his $850,000 nest egg is certainly nothing to sneeze at — especially considering a 2026 survey by Clever Real Estate found that 29% of retirees had no savings at all (2).
More importantly, Mike’s retirement accounts are invested, which is already a great way to make sure his nest egg will grow. It will also help combat inflation to ensure that he doesn’t outlive his hard-earned savings.
However, investing means that the account values can change daily, or even hourly, which isn’t easy. Watching those shifts in real time can make even the most diligent saver feel like they’re gambling with their future.
That’s why one of the most effective ways to quiet the worry is to let a professional do the dirty work of watching the markets and overseeing your accounts. Having that peace of mind alone is a good enough reason for hiring a financial advisor.
But there are other practical reasons, too.
One essential reason for hiring a financial advisor in retirement is so that they can help you figure out how much you can withdraw from your savings without depleting your funds. Using their expertise, they can help calculate a sustainable withdrawal rate based on your savings, investment mix and unique lifestyle needs.
They can even test different scenarios and show you how long your money is likely to last.
In short, a financial professional can do a lot to ease your retirement worries.
But the process of finding an advisor itself can be time consuming and difficult, let alone figuring out if they align with your needs — like assessing whether the 4% rule will work for you. That’s where matching services can come into play.
Advisor.com is an online platform that can quickly match you with a vetted FINRA/SEC-registered advisor who can guide you through your retirement options, including a withdrawal plan. Plus, the platform’s advisors are fiduciaries, meaning they are legally obligated to act in your best interest.
Just enter a few details about your finances and goals, and Advisor.com’s AI-powered matching tool will connect you with a qualified expert suited to your unique financial needs and goals.
Working with an advisor helps ensure that your money is allocated in a way that doesn’t keep you up at night.
In Mike’s case, knowing a professional is guiding his decisions could alleviate the anxiety that leads him to check his balances five times a day. Once he’s able to stop fixating on his balance, he won’t have to worry about every little bump in the road.
That’s when he can really start finding ways to boost his nest egg. However, since his retirement fund is already invested, he might have to look to other ways to make his savings see some real growth.
And sometimes that means being less creative.
For example, rather than handpicking stocks, investing in index funds and ETFs might actually be more beneficial for Mike. The beauty of ETF investing is its accessibility — anyone, regardless of wealth, can take advantage of it — and its consistency.
“The trick is not to pick the right company, the trick is to essentially buy all the big companies through the S&P 500 and to do it consistently and to do it in a very, very low cost way,” Warren Buffett once said during an interview with CNBC (3).
But not everyone has the discipline to set aside money to invest every month. That’s where robo-advisors can help you get started.
With Acorns, even small amounts can grow over time.
Acorns is the app that lets you automatically invest spare change from your everyday purchases into a diversified portfolio of ETFs managed by experts at leading investment firms like Vanguard and BlackRock.
Here’s how it works: Once you link your debit and credit cards, Acorns automatically rounds up each transaction to the nearest dollar and invests the difference in a smart investment portfolio for you.
For instance, if you buy a donut for $3.25, Acorns will round up the purchase to $4 and invest the change in a smart investment portfolio. So a $3.25 purchase automatically becomes a 75-cent investment in your future.
Another less creative solution for Mike could be a high-yield savings account.
For example, a Wealthfront Cash Account, can be a great place to grow your uninvested cash, offering both competitive interest rates and easy access to your cash when you need it.
A Wealthfront Cash Account currently offers base variable APY of 3.30%, and new clients can get a 0.75% boost over their first three months on up to $150,000 for a total APY of 4.05% provided by program banks. That’s over 10 times the national deposit savings rate, according to the FDIC’s January report.
With no minimum balances or account fees, as well as 24/7 withdrawals and free domestic wire transfers, you can ensure your funds remain accessible at all times.
Even with smart investments and the aid of a financial advisor, the key to investing in retirement is there is no one-size-fits-all rule. It’s creating a mix that feels secure.
That’s because when you’re younger, growth is the goal — a heavy stock allocation makes sense. But once you’re in retirement, the stakes are different. A market downturn can be harder to recover from when you’re drawing down your accounts.
However, if Mike knows his money is being invested in a way that won’t lead to big swings — and that those allocations align with his comfort level — he’ll be less tempted to check his investment accounts five times a day for reassurance.
One way Mike could secure his retirement accounts is by diversifying his investments outside of the stock market. And he’d be smart to do so. Many financial experts recommend some amount of hedging against dips in the stock market (4).
For Mike, it may just help him to stop checking his investment app five times each day.
If Mike is looking for a secure option, he should consider investing in real estate.
While investing in real estate may seem like a bold move at Mike’s age — as it usually requires a huge upfront capital expenditure — there’s actually a way of doing it that doesn’t require you to purchase a property outright.
With crowdfunding investing platforms like Arrived, now you can own a percentage of physical real estate — such as vacation and rental properties — without the responsibilities that come along with being a landlord.
Backed by world-class investors like Jeff Bezos, Arrived allows you to invest in shares of rental homes without having to deal with the risks. To get started, simply browse through Arrived’s curated selection of homes, vetted for their appreciation and income potential.
Another option for investment outside of the stock market is the usual suspect — gold.
Gold has been one of the best-performing assets over the past year, precisely because a shaky stock market made so many professional investors run to the safe-haven asset.
One way to invest in gold that can also provide significant tax advantages is to open a gold IRA with the help of Thor Metals. An account with Thor allows you to physically invest in gold and other precious metals while also providing the significant tax advantages of an IRA.
In fact, a gold IRA is particularly attractive as a retirement option, as it allows investors to hold physical gold or gold-related assets within a retirement account, combining the tax advantages of an IRA with the protective benefits of investing in gold, making it great idea for those looking to potentially hedge their retirement funds against economic uncertainties.
The best part? You can get up to $20,000 worth of precious metals when you make a qualifying purchase with Thor Metals — plus a free wealth preservation guide on sign up.
In the end, the less reliant you are on your nest egg, the less worried you might be about running out of money. Relying more on guaranteed income streams, like Social Security, is key here.
Mike can choose to claim benefits now as he’s already 62, but doing so locks him into permanently reduced checks. Waiting until his full retirement age of 67 means a higher benefit, while delaying until 70 boosts his monthly income even further. Understanding these tradeoffs — and choosing the right age to claim — can make a big difference in how secure he feels.
Some retirees also consider annuities or other products that provide a steady lifetime income. The point is to build a foundation of predictable money each month, so the entire burden doesn’t rest on the investment accounts. For Mike, knowing his essential bills will always be covered by Social Security, and perhaps other guaranteed sources, can make the ups and downs of his portfolio less frightening.
Mike’s story is a reminder that worry in retirement isn’t always about the numbers. Even with $850,000 in savings, the lack of a paycheck can create an uneasy feeling of vulnerability.
The path forward isn’t to watch account balances obsessively, but to create a system that replaces that daily reassurance: a withdrawal plan guided by an advisor, an investment strategy that aligns with her comfort level and guaranteed income streams that cover her needs.
With those safeguards in place, Mike and retirees like him can stop treating retirement like a gamble and start enjoying the years they’ve worked so hard for.
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