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Recent research shows that married retirees withdraw about 2.1% of their savings annually while spending 80% of their guaranteed income, such as Social Security.
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Morningstar’s latest analysis suggests retirees can safely withdraw 3.9% to start, close to the classic 4% annual withdrawal rule
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Those willing to adjust spending according to market conditions could take out as much as 6%.
Morningstar’s December 2025 research raised its recommended safe withdrawal rate to 3.9%, up from 3.7% a year earlier. But the retiree’s actual behavior tells a different story.
Morningstar’s figure comes close to the 4% rule, which is one of the most well-known in personal finance: It’s the percentage of your retirement savings you should withdraw in the first year. Each year after that, adjust the percentage for inflation, and if you have enough savings, the money should last until retirement. But recent research shows that many retirees aren’t even close to this traditional guideline.
A study from 2025 in Financial Planning Review by David Blanchett and Michael Finke found that married 65-year-olds with at least $100,000 in assets withdraw only 2.1% per year from their retirement accounts. Single retirees take out even less, about 1.9%. Meanwhile, retirees spend about 80 percent of their guaranteed income, such as Social Security, but spend only about half of their retirement savings.
The result is that while most people fear they won’t have enough to retire, many retirees live more frugally than they might need to, potentially missing out on the experiences they’ve spent a lifetime saving for. But for others, a lower withdrawal rate isn’t unreasonable — it’s prudent based on the calculations of trying to support a pension with less.
Here’s what you need to know.
Analyzing the accounts of 70,000 retirees age 60 and older, Vanguard’s findings reveal just how cautious—and inconsistent—many retirees are about taking withdrawals:
Only about a third withdrew money in each of the years Vanguard looked at, and only 20 percent of that group maintained a consistent withdrawal rate estimated to be between 3 percent and 10 percent annually.
The median retiree in Vanguard’s sample had a 401(k) balance of $133,000 at retirement, about 2.2 years of income. Not surprisingly, those who cashed out in full tended to have smaller balances and lower income before retirement.
That average balance of $133,000 is a critical detail. At the traditional 4% withdrawal rate, that provides about $5,300 a year — useful for paying bills, but not enough to fund a retirement. For retirees with more modest retirement savings, prudent spending is not a psychological quirk, but a prudent approach to having fewer resources.
