Anecdotally, I see quite a few people retiring or planning to retire, with little or nothing saved. Years ago when our newspaper actually HAD a Financial section, someone wrote to the Retirement columnist and asked why he didn't give advice to people who felt "blessed to have $50,000 or $100,000 in retirement savings" instead of addressing the readers who had much more. The columnist's reply: "Keep working".
According to the SSA, 23% of married persons and 43% of unmarried persons rely on SS for more than 90% of their retirement income. Given that the average monthly SS benefit amount is about $1,400 this is a more dismal picture than the EBRI paints.
Someone else mentioned that many retirees probably don't run out of funds but find themselves forced to reduce spending as they age. In many ways I was blessed to be married to my second husband, who was 15 years older than I. I saw the extra expenses of living comfortably in your 70s- hearing aids, good dental care, decreased ability to work around the house and the yard (especially on ladders), and more comfortable travel (Business Class on long hauls, cars to and from airports, fewer trips on public transportation dragging suitcases and backpacks with us, hotels closer to the action).
Even if you don't outlive your savings, not being able to afford good hearing aids or watching your house fall down around you because you don't have the money to get it repaired is a dismal way to spend your final years.
But two things in particular make me less concerned about running out of money in retirement: 1. I know I can live on a lot less per month than I am budgeting (will I like it? Hell no, but it won't be eating cat food), and 2. If something starts to shimmy, I'll know about it a long way away. It's not like I'll wake up one day and say "damn, I thought I had $3M here, now I only have $847."
My feelings exactly. I have numerous large discretionary items I can change at will: funding the granddaughters' 529s, travel and charitable donations (although I would hesitate to reduce a church pledge once I made it, I could pledge less the next year). I could even file for SS earlier than planned- I'm 65 and collecting Survivor benefits and planning to wait on my own till age 70. Mid-course corrections are always possible.