Your Retirement Plan Shouldn’t Survive Everything
Written by Jessica Cannella, Co-Founder and President
Reviewed/Updated: October 2026
How safe does your retirement plan really need to be? Preparing for market declines, inflation, healthcare expenses, longevity, and unexpected costs is responsible planning. But trying to protect against every possible “what if” can create a different problem: you may become so focused on protecting your money that you’re reluctant to actually use it.
In this video, Troy Sharpe walks through the hypothetical example of Steve and Nancy, a retired couple considering a $70,000 kitchen renovation they can afford according to their plan. Steve still can’t get comfortable spending the money. Their situation illustrates how stress-testing a retirement decision can help separate a legitimate financial risk from fear of uncertainty—and why the consequences of continually postponing something deserve consideration too.
Quick Answer
A retirement plan doesn’t need to survive every imaginable disaster. It needs enough resilience to withstand meaningful risks while still allowing you to use your money for the life you planned to live.
Before making a significant retirement decision, ask: What would have to go wrong for this decision to actually hurt my retirement? Then test those conditions. If your income plan, liquidity, healthcare reserves, and long-term financial picture remain intact under reasonable risks and more difficult scenarios, the decision may no longer be purely financial.
Key Takeaways
- You can’t eliminate uncertainty from retirement. Markets, inflation, healthcare costs, longevity, and unexpected expenses all create risks that need to be considered, but no plan can control every possible outcome.
- Being extremely conservative has tradeoffs too. Holding more cash, spending less, postponing retirement, or continually delaying
Transcript
When a Retirement Plan Becomes a Bunker
I see people trying to build retirement plans that can survive almost anything, just shy of nuclear warfare, a terrible market, high inflation, living to 100, major healthcare expenses, helping their kids, a recession, every possible version of what if. And being prepared matters. But at some point, there’s a question we have to ask. How much of your life are you willing to sacrifice just to make sure that your money survives it?
Because I’ve even seen retirement plans where money is incredibly protected, and the person barely gets to use any of it. By the end of this video, I want to show you the difference between being financially responsible and being so afraid of the future that you never fully live the retirement that you worked so hard for.
Steve and Nancy’s $70,000 Decision
So let’s picture a couple that I’ll call Steve and Nancy. Let’s say they’re 68 and 66. They’ve done really well, saved consistently, they don’t have debt, they’ve built a sizable investment portfolio, and their retirement income covers their lifestyle comfortably. And Nancy has one thing that she’s wanted for years.
She wants to renovate her 2009 kitchen and bring it up to 2026. Not build a new house, not put a $300,000 pool in. She wants to redo the kitchen where their family gathers every Thanksgiving and Christmas and all the special moments in between. The project will cost about $70,000. Can they afford it?
Yes. They’ve run the numbers, there’s room in the plan, but Steve can’t get comfortable with it. He worries about the market crashing, then his mind goes to long-term care needs in the future, inflation could get worse, and what happens if one of them does live to 100?
When Every “What If” Becomes a Reason to Wait
If you recognize your own thinking in Steve’s questions, subscribe and ring that notification bell. We’ll explore decisions like this. How to weigh retirement risks alongside the things that you want your money to make possible. Now back to Steve’s concerns.
They’re all fair, but watch what happens when every concern becomes another reason to wait. All fair concerns, so they wait. A year goes by, then another, and every time Nancy brings up the kitchen, Steve finds another reason it would be safer to just kick that can down the road.
Here’s the interesting part: Steve isn’t really protecting the kitchen money anymore. He’s protecting himself and his family from uncertainty. And those things are very different because there will always be another what if.
You Can’t Eliminate Retirement Uncertainty
That’s the problem with trying to build a retirement plan that survives everything. Everything is a very expensive thing to insure against. Your retirement plan absolutely needs production. Bad markets need to be accounted for, inflation changes, purchasing power, healthcare can come a major expense.
Living longer creates its own financial challenges, and unexpected costs are going to happen. That’s responsible planning. But responsible planning doesn’t mean pretending you can eliminate uncertainty. That’s control, and no one has control. So instead of asking, can my plan survive every possible thing that could go wrong?
I prefer a different question. What risks actually need to be protected, and how much protection is enough?
Are You Building a Retirement Plan—or a Bunker?
Think about it like building a house. We need a strong foundation, the roof needs to hold up, insurance protects against major losses, smoke detectors and locks handle other risks, but you probably wouldn’t say, there’s a tiny chance that a meteor hits Houston, so we’re going to build the entire house underground. Technically, that might make you feel safer, but at some point you’ve stopped building a home and you’ve started building a bunker.
Retirement plans can become bunkers too. Maybe you keep more cash than you really need. Spending gets tighter, retirement gets pushed back another year, the trip can wait, and Nancy still doesn’t get her kitchen. And the portfolio becomes something that you’re afraid to touch.
Each decision by itself can sound responsible until you zoom out and realize you’ve built an incredibly safe plan for a life you’re barely living. That’s not the goal.
What a Resilient Retirement Plan Should Protect
The goal is resilience. Can your lifestyle withstand a bad market, a health event? Is there enough liquidity for unexpected expenses? Have you considered what changes financially if one of the spouses dies first? Which is more than likely will happen.
And does the plan still work if you live much longer than expected? Those are risks that we can actually plan around. Once we’ve done that, your money needs permission to do its job. So let’s go back to Steve and Nancy.
Putting Numbers Around the Fear
And instead of asking whether the $70,000 kitchen renovation could hurt them under every imaginable scenario, we put the numbers around the fear. Let’s start with a 25% market drop, the year after they renovate. Run it. Keep inflation higher for longer. Test it.
Extend one of their lives or both to 100 and look at it. Then check the liquidity that remains afterwards. There’s enough. The renovation doesn’t interfere with their income plan. Their healthcare reserves remain intact.
Now Steve has something different. Information. He can decide whether keeping another $70,000 invested is more important to him than spending the next 15 or 20 years enjoying the home that he already owns. That’s the decision.
The Risk of Doing Nothing
Not is there any possible future? Where we could regret spending this money. Of course there will be. There’s also a possible future where they never renovate the kitchen and regret that. There’s a lot of talk in financial planning about the risk of taking action.
What happens if we spend the money? But there’s also risk in doing nothing, keep delaying, and certain opportunities can disappear. Some things remain unfinished. Experiences you could enjoy today might not be available later. Those consequences belong in the plan too.
But here’s something I want you to try. Think about one thing that you’ve been postponing because you’re afraid to spend the money. Maybe it’s a trip, perhaps it’s a home renovation, you might want to help your children, buy yourself something nice, or maybe you’ve been considering retirement for six months or six years and you haven’t pulled the trigger yet.
How to Test a Big Retirement Decision
Whatever it is, stop asking, can I afford it? And instead ask, what would have to go wrong for this decision to actually hurt my retirement? Now you have something that you can test.
A normal market correction, putting the plant in trouble tells you something. Draining reserves you might need later is another warning sign. And if the numbers only work when everything goes perfectly, which it won’t, you’re probably not ready.
But if you’ve tested the decision against reasonable risks and a few worst case scenarios, and your retirement still works, the problem may no longer be financial. It might be emotional or behavioral. It could be a permission issue. And that’s a very different problem to solve.
When the Problem Isn’t Financial
Most people I meet aren’t trying to die with the biggest account balance possible. Security matters, so does independence. They want time with the people that they love, experiences that they’ll remember, and the freedom to make choices and have options in retirement, and the confidence that they’re going to be okay. That’s what the money is for.
So, yes, protect your future, build the reserves, stress test the plan, prepare for things that could realistically go wrong, but don’t spend the next 30 years of retirement preparing for every possible disaster where the life you are trying to protect passes right in front of you.
Your Retirement Plan Should Help You Live
A retirement plan shouldn’t be designed to survive everything. It’s not a bunker. It should be designed to survive enough so that you can actually live.
What’s Your Version of Nancy’s Kitchen?
So what’s your version of Nancy’s kitchen? A trip you keep her postponing? Maybe time with your family? A new car? A retirement date that keeps moving?
If you’re unsure how your decision fits into your finances, call Oak Harvest Financial Group at the number in the description below to schedule a no-cost, no obligation discovery call with one of our retirement experts. And let’s talk about what you want to do, what concerns you have, and how your income, investments, and reserves fit together. We can discuss how evaluating different scenarios may help you understand the trade-offs.
While recognizing that projections can’t predict every outcome, the conversation might point to room for a goal, a reason to adjust it, or a need to wait. It starts with understanding your unique situation, because you’ve spent years preparing for retirement. Let’s talk about what you want those years to make possible.
If you’d like help seeing how all of these decisions come together in your retirement plan, you can schedule a complimentary visit with our team. We’ll learn more about your situation, what you’re trying to accomplish, and help you understand what the next steps could look like. https://click2retire.com/4dWZdMe
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I know if I can afford a large purchase in retirement?
Instead of only asking whether you can afford the purchase today, ask what would have to go wrong for the decision to actually hurt your retirement. Stress-test the decision against risks such as a market decline, higher inflation, unexpected expenses, healthcare costs, and a longer-than-expected lifespan. Then look at whether your income plan, liquidity, and necessary reserves remain intact.
What does it mean to stress-test a retirement plan?
Stress-testing means looking at how your retirement plan responds when conditions are worse than expected. In Steve and Nancy’s example, that means testing their plan after the $70,000 kitchen renovation against a 25% market decline, higher inflation, living to age 100, and their remaining liquidity. The goal isn’t to predict the future but to understand how much room the plan has when things don’t go as expected.
Should my retirement plan be able to survive every worst-case scenario?
A retirement plan should account for meaningful risks, but trying to protect against every imaginable outcome can have its own cost. You may end up holding more cash than necessary, delaying retirement, spending less, or continually postponing things that matter to you. The goal described in the video is resilience rather than trying to eliminate all uncertainty.
How much cash should I keep in retirement?
There isn’t one amount that is appropriate for everyone. The important question is whether you have enough liquidity for unexpected expenses and whether the rest of your retirement plan can withstand realistic risks. Holding more cash may feel safer, but excessive cash can also become part of a pattern of being afraid to use the money you accumulated for retirement.
Is being too conservative in retirement a risk?
It can be. There is risk in spending money, but there can also be consequences to continually doing nothing. Trips may become harder to take, projects may remain unfinished, retirement dates can keep moving, and opportunities available while you’re healthy may not always be available later.
What if the numbers say I can afford something, but I’m still afraid to spend the money?
If you’ve tested the decision against reasonable risks and more difficult scenarios and the retirement plan still works, the issue may no longer be purely financial. It may involve your comfort with uncertainty or giving yourself permission to use the money. That is a different question from whether the financial plan can support the decision.
What risks should a retirement plan prepare for?
The video highlights risks including market declines, inflation, healthcare expenses, unexpected costs, longevity, liquidity needs, and the financial impact of one spouse dying before the other. The purpose of planning is to understand and prepare for meaningful risks rather than attempting to eliminate uncertainty altogether.
What is the real purpose of a retirement plan?
A retirement plan isn’t simply about preserving the largest possible account balance. It should help provide security, independence, flexibility, and the ability to use your money for the people, experiences, and goals that matter to you. The goal is to protect enough of your future that you can actually live the retirement you spent years preparing for.
About the Author
Jessica Cannella is the Co-Founder and President of Oak Harvest Financial Group, where she has spent more than two decades helping individuals, families, and business owners make confident financial decisions and build lasting wealth. Her work focuses on helping people gain greater clarity and confidence around their finances while building plans that support the life they want to live.
Jessica is also the founder of GoGo Sisterhood, a community for women 40+ centered on connection, personal growth, wellness, education, philanthropy, and shared experiences. As a speaker, entrepreneur, and community builder, Jessica believes financial confidence is only one part of a fulfilling life—and that retirement and the second half of life should be about more than simply protecting what you’ve accumulated.
