Whenever I talk to clients and potential clients about their retirement, one concern always rises to the surface:
Will I be okay?
Chances are, this is on your mind too.
Will you have enough to truly enjoy your retirement years?
Will your money last as long as you do?
Financially speaking—will you be okay?
Back in 2023, the big fear was a looming recession. In 2025, that fear hasn’t disappeared—it’s simply evolved. Today, we’re dealing with continued uncertainty: tariffs, stubborn inflation, AI disrupting entire industries, and unpredictable swings in the value of assets like Bitcoin.
So, the question remains:
What can you do to ensure your retirement is recession-resilient, no matter what the headlines say?
The good news: There’s a way to plan with confidence—even in uncertain times.
It Takes a Lot to Recover from a Major Downturn
Let’s rewind to the 2008–2009 financial crisis, when the stock market dropped a staggering 56%. Some people had the luxury of waiting for the market to bounce back. Others weren’t so lucky—they were already retired or lost their jobs, and had to withdraw funds just to cover everyday expenses. Their portfolios took a double hit, and many never fully recovered.
Do the math:
Say you start with a $100,000 nest egg. A 56% downturn cuts that down to $44,000. If you need to withdraw $10,000 to make ends meet, you’re left with just $34,000. The market would need to nearly triple for you to recover.
Long-term investing success includes the ability to avoid large losses during the declines that markets can experience.
That’s why avoiding large losses is just as important as achieving gains. Long-term success in retirement isn’t just about growth—it’s about resilience.
For more information on surviving a loss of retirement savings in an economic downturn, see our post on LinkedIn.
You Need to Diversify Beyond Just Stocks and Bonds
One of the most important ways to protect your retirement savings from a recession is by ensuring your portfolio is truly diversified.
Many people think they’re diversified because they own a mix of stocks and bonds—or mutual funds and ETFs that are made up of stocks and bonds. But here’s the truth: that’s not real diversification. It’s simply owning different flavors of the same risk.
True diversification means spreading your money across different types of assets—not just different types of stocks or different maturities of bonds. This might include real assets like real estate, commodities, or private investments. It could also mean including non-market-correlated assets—investments that don’t rise and fall with Wall Street.
When a recession hits, having this broader mix can help reduce your losses and speed up your recovery. A well-diversified portfolio acts like shock absorbers on a bumpy road—it doesn’t eliminate the bumps, but it makes the ride a lot smoother.
For more information on buffer assets see this LinkedIn post.
You Need Reliable, Guaranteed Income
In retirement, what matters most isn’t how much you’ve saved—it’s how reliable your income is.
I recently spoke with a high-net-worth woman who was still working but feeling burned out. She wanted to retire but worried she couldn’t afford to. When we sat down and mapped out her income streams—then added a few guaranteed income options—she realized she was more than okay.
Today, she’s retired, energized, and finally enjoying the life she worked so hard to build.
That kind of peace of mind doesn’t happen by accident—it happens by design.
If you don’t have a generous pension—or if Social Security alone won’t cover your needs—annuities can be powerful tools for creating lifetime income that isn’t tied to market volatility.
In fact, Dr. Wade Pfau, one of the top retirement researchers, found that retirees are less likely to run out of money when they include both stocks and annuities in their portfolios, instead of relying solely on one or the other.
Independent studies from Morningstar and the Society of Actuaries confirm it:
Guaranteed income improves retirement security.The bottom line?
You need income you can count on—no matter what the economy does.
Check out this article on Retirement Income = Retirement Lifestyle