This article originally appeared in Kiplinger.
Most people assume retirement planning is primarily a math problem. Save enough, invest wisely, hit your number – and you’re done. (If only it were that easy, right?)
After working with hundreds of families over the years, we’ve found that the math is rarely what gets in the way. What gets in the way is something a little sneakier: the beliefs about money that people carry into every financial decision they make, often without realizing it.
These beliefs are called “money scripts,” a term coined by psychologist and financial planner Dr. Brad Klontz. They’re the unconscious assumptions about money we develop early in life, usually in response to what we observed or experienced in our families growing up.
The important thing to understand about money scripts is that they’re not random. Yours made sense at some point as a way of protecting yourself or imitating your environment. Addressing your money scripts is not a matter of finding out what’s “wrong” with you, it’s simply a tool to help understand yourself better.
The problem is that when your money scripts begin interfering with your financial plan, then your past experiences can limit your future opportunities. That’s why today we’re looking at how your money scripts could be derailing your retirement plan.
First, a refresher on the four primary money scripts (we will define them as we go):
- Money avoidance
- Money worship
- Money status
- Money vigilance
Here’s how each money script can show up in your retirement plan – and what to do if any look familiar.
Money Avoidance: “I don’t really want to think about this.”
People with a money avoidance script tend to believe, somewhere deep down, that money is stressful, complicated, or even a little shameful. They may have grown up in a household where money was a source of tension, or where it was simply never discussed.
In retirement, this often shows up as avoidance – putting off financial planning conversations, feeling overwhelmed when the subject comes up, or delegating all financial decisions to a spouse and not being fully informed about your financial picture now or your financial plan for the future. We see this one a lot from people who would rather reorganize their closet than open an investment statement.
To be clear, people in this category are not necessarily being irresponsible. Many are actually quite good savers. The risk is that they arrive at retirement without a clear sense of what they have, what they need, or what they want – and that uncertainty can make the transition harder than it needs to be.
What to do if this is you
If this resonates with you, the best next step isn’t to force yourself to sit down and get your finances in perfect order. That’s probably not a realistic path forward for you at the moment.
Find a financial professional you trust and sit down for an honest conversation about your finances. Once you open up and get some clear guidance, your natural inclination toward money avoidance will most likely shrink.
Money Worship: “Once I have enough, everything will be fine.”
Money worshippers have the opposite problem. They’ve spent their careers believing that financial security is just around the next corner – one more year, one more raise, one more milestone.
They believe that any stress they feel about the future can be fixed with enough money. The result is that they often don’t feel ready to retire, even when they clearly are.
This script can also show up as a reluctance to spend in retirement. After decades of accumulating, the idea of drawing down their savings feels genuinely wrong – even when the numbers show they could live comfortably for decades on what they have.
The deeper issue is that money has come to represent safety, and no amount of money ever feels like quite enough safety. Retirement, by definition, means shifting from accumulation to distribution – and for someone with this script, that shift can feel unsettling in ways they might not be able to fully articulate.
What to do if this is you
If this resonates with you, it’s worth asking yourself what retirement is actually for.
The question isn’t “How much do I need to retire?” That’s a math question, and the answer will only give you another financial goal without adding any meaning.
Reframe your retirement conversation around values questions: What do you want your days to look like? What would make it feel like enough? Rather than getting stressed out about going from saving to spending, focus on the purpose of your spending going forward.
All too often, financial concerns take priority over these questions. But if you look at them before retirement, you’ll find that the transition from saving to spending is less stressful and more purposeful.
Money Status: “What will people think?”
For people with a money status script, financial decisions are filtered through one question: How does this look? They may have spent their working years in a lifestyle that reflected their professional identity – the house, the car, the vacations – and retirement raises an uncomfortable question about what happens to that identity when the career ends.
In retirement planning, this can show up in a few ways. Some people in this category overspend in retirement because they feel like they have to maintain their lifestyle. Others are reluctant to downsize or simplify, even when it would make their financial lives significantly easier. Still others struggle with the psychological shift from “earner” to “retiree” – a title that can feel like a demotion if your self-worth is tied to what you do.
What to do if this is you
Retirement is actually a remarkable opportunity to reconsider what you want your life to communicate – not to the world, but to yourself. Many people find that the things they thought they needed turn out to matter much less than the experiences and relationships they’d been putting off.
Schedule a time to sit down with a trusted financial advisor who can help you look at the underlying motivations behind your finances and then build a financial plan based on your values.
Money Vigilance: “I need to be careful.”
Of the four scripts, this one looks the healthiest from the outside. Money vigilant people are diligent savers, thoughtful spenders, and rarely in financial trouble. But taken too far, vigilance becomes its own obstacle in retirement.
Most commonly, we see this show up in people who have saved enough to live comfortably – sometimes very comfortably – but who can’t bring themselves to actually do it.
Every withdrawal from savings feels like a step toward running out. Every expense feels like a threat. The vacation they’ve been putting off for years suddenly seems irresponsible. The kitchen remodel feels reckless. Lunch out feels indulgent.
They track every dollar not out of habit but out of anxiety.
The irony is that these people are often more prepared for retirement than anyone else. They hit their savings goals. They planned ahead. They aced the test! But now they’re having a hard time celebrating.
And then they got to retirement and discovered that vigilance doesn’t have an off switch – and the retirement they worked so hard to fund isn’t as enjoyable as it should be.
What to do if this is you
If this resonates with you, it may help to think less about the money you’re spending and more about what you’re buying.
Time with family. Experiences you’ve put off. Contributions to causes you care about. The goal of saving was never to have a large balance sheet – it was to have a life you love.
Don’t Let Past Experiences Limit Future Opportunities
Did you recognize yourself in one of the scripts? Or maybe all of them? That’s normal! Most of us carry more than one.
The good news is that awareness is most of the battle. Understanding why you make the financial decisions you make is a huge step toward making different ones.
The second step is working with an advisor who understands that financial planning isn’t just about numbers. It’s about finding the why behind the money.
The underlying truth that drives everything we do at Clarity is this: Your life isn’t defined by the number in your account. It’s defined by what that number lets you do.
At Clarity, we don’t start by looking at your portfolio. We start by asking about your life – what you want it to look like, what you’re afraid of, what you’d do with your time if money weren’t a constraint.
In these conversations, we’re listening for the driving purpose that makes you come alive, plus the money scripts that may be running in the background. The result is meaningful planning.
Want to talk?
Clarity Wealth Development is a fee-only, fiduciary financial planning firm in Corvallis, Oregon. If you’d like to talk through your retirement plan – and what might be getting in the way – we’d love to hear from you.
