'A complete mind shift’: Vanguard strategist outlines 4 key principles for managing retirement income

“Moving from a saving mindset to a spending mindset is really difficult for most people,” Garrett Harbron, Head of Advised Wealth Management Strategies at Vanguard, told Moneywise. After decades of diligent saving, he added, watching that bank account balance drop instead of rise can be stress-inducing.

And retirement income anxiety begins long before that final work whistle blows. An April Gallup poll found that 62% of Americans stress that they haven’t accumulated enough retirement savings, while 54% worry about maintaining their lifestyle.

“This causes some retirees to spend less than they can actually afford in retirement, and maybe not live the life they’d really like to,” he added. “That’s why starting with purpose is so important.”

As such, Harbron, who noted the shift in focus requires “a complete mind shift” in an interview with CBS, helped outline some strategies for doing just that as the lead researcher for Vanguard’s Principles for Retirement Income, which offers four key principles for mindful money management — and subsequent stress relief.

The four principles for retirement financial security

From dynamic spending to adhering to the 4% rule, everyone has a different take on how to handle retirement income.

Harbron said Vanguard’s four principles “ensure that retirees know what they want their retirement to be, how they will spend their money, have security knowing that their money will last and the time to enjoy their retirement.” And they are:

Start with purpose: Harbron said this first step is “about setting goals, creating a spending plan, ensuring it’s sustainable and thinking about the risks that might knock your plan off track.” He called it “the foundation of any successful retirement plan.”

Cover your essentials: This, Harbron noted, encourages retirees to use income that they won’t outlive, like Social Security payments, a pension or an income annuity to pay for essential expenses like food, housing and medical care. “This makes sure basic needs are covered however long they’re in retirement and no matter what happens in the markets.”

Make your wealth last: This is all about how retirees can make the most of their savings “by reducing lifetime taxes or being flexible with their spending to make their money last as long as their retirement does.” The Vanguard study says that this step also includes paying off high-interest debt and unsecured loans to increase wealth and financial flexibility.

Simplify: This is essentially the process of consolidating assets like 401(k)s and IRAs that are in different financial institutions and automating withdrawals or payments “to allow retirees to spend more time doing the things they really want to do.”

Lora J. Hoff, a certified financial planner (CFP) and wealth advisor with Wealth Partners Alliance, agreed with the principles but told Moneywise that shifting from saving to spending is a “serious mind shift.” And CFP Robert Pagliarini told Moneywise that, in retirement, “nothing prepares you” for the change in mentality that you’ve adhered to for decades.

It’s a pattern that illustrates how adjusting to the proper money mentality in retirement could prove just as important for reducing financial anxiety as getting your accounts in order.

The retirement money mindset: giving yourself permission to spend

Pagliarini says that shifting the language used in retirement could help offset the mindset shift from a saving to spending mentality.

“Change the verb. Stop saying ‘spending.’ Start saying ‘using,’” he said. “Spending sounds like loss. Using is conversion — into health, into experiences, into people and causes worth backing.”

CFP Riley Saunders told Moneywise that “money scripts” — which he defined as “unconscious, multigenerational beliefs about money that are often developed in childhood and deeply influence adult financial behaviors” — can prove positive in the saving phase of life, but work against you in the retirement spending phase.