You spent decades earning a paycheck. Then it stopped. And suddenly, the financial decisions you made — or didn’t make — over the last 30 years are staring you in the face.
That’s the uncomfortable reality hitting millions of Americans who have recently retired. According to a 2026 study by the Nationwide Retirement Institute, more than half (55%) of people who retired in the last five years have regrets about how they saved for retirement.
Not minor regrets, either. We’re talking about the kind that reshape how you eat, travel, and sleep at night.
I’ve been offering financial advice since 1981, and I’ve seen these mistakes play out over and over again.
The good news? If you haven’t retired yet, you can still course-correct. And if you already have, it’s not too late to make smarter moves going forward.
Here are the five regrets recent retirees keep coming back to and how to avoid them.
1. Not saving enough — or starting too late
This one tops every list, and the data backs it up. In Nationwide’s survey of recent retirees, 28% wish they’d started saving earlier. Another 13% wish they’d put away more money each year.
That’s 41% of retirees pointing at a fixable mistake: They didn’t treat saving like a non-negotiable expense.
Only 40% of recent retirees say they’re actually on track with their original spending plan. The rest? They’re scrambling.
If you’re still working, increase your 401(k) contributions, even by 1%. If you’re over 50, catch-up contributions let you stash significantly more each year. For 2026, workers 50 and older can contribute up to $32,500 to a 401(k). (A special catch-up rule for ages 60 to 63 allows an even higher catch-up, totaling $35,750.)
The best time to start was 20 years ago. The second-best time is right now.
2. Getting blindsided by health care costs
Here’s a number that should make your jaw drop: According to Fidelity Investments, a 65-year-old retiring today can expect to spend $172,500 on health care throughout retirement. For a couple, that’s $345,000.
And that doesn’t include long-term care.
Yet 1 in 5 Americans admit they’ve never even thought about health care costs in retirement. That number jumps to 1 in 4 among Gen Xers.
Medicare doesn’t cover everything. Dental? Vision? Long-term nursing care? Those are largely on you. And the costs Medicare won’t cover can add up shockingly fast, as we detail in “3 Surprise Medicare Expenses That Could Wipe Out Your Nest Egg in 2026.”
If you have access to a health savings account, use it aggressively. It’s the only account that gives you a triple tax advantage: tax-deductible contributions, tax-free growth, and tax-free withdrawals for qualified medical expenses. Think of it as a stealth retirement account.
3. Panicking when markets drop
This is where recent retirees are getting crushed — not by the market itself, but by their own reaction to it.
Nationwide found that half of recent retirees made changes to their retirement portfolio because of market turbulence. Compare that to just one-third of people who’ve been retired longer.
Even worse, 15% of new retirees made significant portfolio changes, nearly double the rate of longer-term retirees.
I get it. Watching your portfolio drop when you no longer have a paycheck coming in is terrifying. But selling into a downturn is one of the fastest ways to permanently damage your retirement. As I wrote in “Freaking Out About the Stock Market? Read This,” when the urge to sell becomes nearly irresistible, you’re probably approaching the time to buy.
The first few years of retirement are especially dangerous because of something financial planners call the sequence of returns risk. Poor investment returns early in retirement can dramatically shorten how long your money lasts.
The fix? Keep two to three years of living expenses in cash or low-risk investments before you retire. That way, you don’t have to sell stocks when they’re down just to pay the electric bill.
4. Grabbing Social Security too early
It’s tempting. You hit 62, and the government says you can start collecting. So you do.
But according to an AARP 2025 survey, nearly half of people who claimed Social Security early — or plan to — were motivated by fear that the program is running out of money.
That fear is mostly misplaced. Even if the trust fund is depleted, payroll taxes would still fund roughly 80% of benefits. And a National Bureau of Economic Research paper found that 19% of retirees who claimed early said they regret it.
Here’s the math that matters: For every year you delay past your full retirement age, your monthly benefit grows by about 8%. That’s a guaranteed, inflation-adjusted return you can’t get anywhere else.
And if you’re married, the stakes are higher. When the higher earner dies, the surviving spouse gets bumped up to that person’s benefit. If you claimed early and locked in a smaller check, your spouse is stuck with that reduced amount for life.
I explain this and other traps in “5 Costly Social Security Blunders Even the Experts Make.”
Unless you truly need the money or have health concerns, waiting pays.
5. Overspending in the first few years
The honeymoon phase of retirement is real — and it’s expensive. New retirees often celebrate with travel, home renovations, and lifestyle upgrades, all while underestimating how long their money needs to last.
Nationwide’s data shows that 21% of recent retirees have already had to cut spending below what they originally planned. Another 7% had to make significant lifestyle changes just to protect their savings.
Kevin Jestice, president of Nationwide Retirement Solutions, put it bluntly: Early overspending on travel or home projects can create long-term sustainability issues.
That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t enjoy retirement. You absolutely should. But set a clear budget and figure out how much fun money you can actually afford without jeopardizing your future. We’ve put together tips so you won’t have to un-retire to survive, and every single one of them starts with being honest about the numbers.
And don’t ignore your health in those early years, either. Small health declines you brush off at 66 can become financial catastrophes by 76. Our readers shared exactly how these unexpected harsh realities of retirement caught them off guard.
The bottom line
Retirement isn’t a finish line. It’s a financial marathon that can last 30 years or more, and the decisions you make in the first few years set the tone for everything that follows.
The good news? Every one of these regrets is avoidable. Save more. Plan for health care. Don’t panic-sell your investments. Wait on Social Security if you can. And don’t blow your savings celebrating before you’ve done the math.
If you haven’t retired yet, treat this list as a cheat sheet, alongside our breakdown of the retirement planning mistakes you’ll regret forever.
And if you’ve already retired? It’s not too late to course-correct. Review your budget, talk to a financial adviser, and make the adjustments that’ll keep you solvent — and sleeping soundly — for decades to come.
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