You’ll probably never spend your retirement savings completely — don’t live your ‘go-go’ years full of worry. Here’s why

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Running out of savings in old age is the biggest fear for many retirees. In fact, 67% of Americans are more worried about outliving their money than death itself, according to an Allianz Life study (1).

This persistent fear of a drained bank account could be pushing millions of seniors into uncomfortably tight budgets or risky personal finance behavior, but here's the strange part: the data says most retirees never come close to running out.

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Despite all the fear-mongering about retirement savings and inflation, most retirees actually underspend their nest eggs.

Here's a closer look at this surprising spending paradox and why you may want to reconsider your own retirement plans.

The standard retirement rule of thumb for most seniors is the 4% rule. Financial experts and advisors generally recommend withdrawing 4% of assets every year to fund retirement needs without the risk of depleting cash over the long-term.

Got $1 million in savings? That's just $40,000 per year.

However, a study by David Blanchett and Michael Finke found that retirees actually only spend half of their available savings in retirement (2). A typical married couple of 65-year-olds with at least $100k in assets withdraw just 2.1% per year from qualified and non-qualified accounts. That's roughly half the 4% rule.

Another study by the Employee Benefit Research Institute found that many retirees barely touch their nest eggs (3). Roughly 21 to 22 years into retirement, all wealth groups "saw significant retention — and even accumulation — of assets." Two decades into retirement, 37% of low-asset, 48% of middle-asset and 42% of high-asset seniors had preserved roughly 80% of the assets they retired with.

Simply put, the fear of outliving your money could be overblown.

And this fear could be costing you something far more precious: your healthiest and most active years. The average health-adjusted life expectancy for U.S. adults is 63.4, according to the World Health Organization (4). This is the age where, on average, you can be expected to be in "full health."