Brett Arends on How to Keep Your Money Working Past Retirement

When Christine Benz and Amy Arnott sat down with veteran money‑writer Brett Arends on the Morningstar "Long View" podcast (July 21, 2026), the conversation quickly turned to a question that haunts many retirees: what if you outlive your money?

Arends, a Cambridge double‑first who later did research at Oxford, isn’t just an academic. He’s spent more than two decades on the front lines of financial journalism – from Fleet Street’s Daily Telegraph to the Wall Street Journal and MarketWatch – and he’s the author of three best‑selling guides on building a resilient portfolio.

He starts by admitting his own early mistake: chasing the flash‑in‑the‑pan tech stocks of the late‑1990s. “I thought I was buying the future,” he laughs, “but it turned out to be more like buying a ticket to a circus that never closed.” That lesson, he says, is what makes the current AI boom feel eerily familiar. “It’s the Jaws sequels of the dot‑com era – a massive arms race with vendors pouring money into hype,” Arends warns, reminding listeners that enthusiasm alone does not translate into investor returns.

So, how do you protect yourself from a similar bubble and, more importantly, from the dreaded “outlive‑my‑savings” scenario? Arends lays out three concrete levers.

1. Diversify, and keep it simple. He urges investors to lean on low‑cost index funds that capture broad market exposure. “If you can’t explain a holding in a sentence, you probably shouldn’t own it,” he says. Private‑equity style deals, in his view, are “nice in theory but a bad deal for the average person.”

2. Embrace inflation‑protected securities. With headline inflation nudging higher, Treasury Inflation‑Protected Securities (TIPS) become a sensible hedge. “Your principal grows with the CPI, so you preserve purchasing power without betting on any one sector,” Arends explains.

3. Lock in guaranteed cash flow. Immediate annuities, he notes, are often unfairly maligned. “A portion of your portfolio can be turned into a lifelong paycheck that the government can’t revoke,” he says, pointing out that the product works best when used to cover essential expenses, leaving the rest free for growth‑oriented assets.

Social Security, of course, still forms the backbone of most retirees’ income, but Arends cautions against assuming it will stay untouched. Policy shifts are possible, so having a private “safety net” – whether through an annuity, a bucket of TIPS, or a well‑planned draw‑down strategy – is essential.

He wraps up with a reassuring, if slightly cheeky, mantra: “You don’t need a crystal ball; you need a solid, diversified plan and the discipline to stick with it.” The takeaway? Outliving your money isn’t inevitable. It just takes a bit of foresight, a dash of humility, and the right mix of products to keep your retirement runway long enough to enjoy the view.