How to Money · Wednesday, September 2, 2026
Wes Moss contends that large financial firms intentionally amplify fears about retirement, such as the fear of running out of money, to encourage clients to seek their services. He explains that this 'toxic soup' of internal anxieties and conflicting financial advice, like the varying opinions on retirement savings targets ($5 million, $10 million, $20 million), contributes to widespread worry among individuals, regardless of their current financial standing.
“And then I in my research, it shows that the fear of running out of money goes it never ends. No matter how much money we have. The three million plus camp still one in four one of their greatest fears is running out of money.”
“So you get hit from the internal human fear that'll that's just baked in like DNA, that's not going to really go away. And then you bake in the discord of well, you gotta have five, gotta have ten, you gotta have twenty, and then it just creates this really toxic soup that makes us worried forever, and and and also now that you brought this up, the big financial firms are not there to unscare you.”
“You think about it, like the black rocks of the world, the giant trillion dollar companies, they're there to to to blow a little billow on the flame of fear so that maybe you say, well, okay, can you help me?”