Liz Weston: Will you really run out of money in retirement? Liz Weston Many U.S. households retire without enough money to maintain their pre-retirement standard of living. Once retired, though, people often reduce their spending enough to make their money last, according to a recent study by David Blanchett, head of retirement research at Morningstar, and Warren Cormier, executive director of the Defined Contribution Institutional Investment Association’s Retirement Research Center. “People are finding a way to make it work,” Blanchett says. The findings challenge a common financial planning assumption that retirees’ spending will increase at the rate of inflation each year. But the research also indicates many people retire without a realistic understanding of how much they can safely spend.