What do rich people worry about? When they manage to find a peaceful night’s rest, what keeps them awake? Is it how to spend their vast wealth in a responsible and moral way? Is it how to improve the world around them? Is it how much wealth needed to be transferred from the poor in order for them to accumulate so much money? The answer might (but probably not) surprise you!

Northwestern Mutual, in partnership with The Harris Poll, surveyed rich adults in the United States and found out what their biggest concerns were when it comes to their money. What are they most concerned about, and how do their answers help us understand the older citizens who approach retirement? What insights can we gain into the mind of the rich person?

Let’s dive into the study together. Keep in mind, the findings of this study are the result of The Harris Poll, and all analysis is our own.

The Study

In 2024, The Harris Poll interviewed 4,588 adults living in the United States about their attitudes, behaviors, and opinions regarding money, retirement, financial decisions, and their financial security. Among the adults surveyed were 831 rich people with a net worth greater than $1 million.

The study is called The 2024 Planning & Progress Study, and while the entire study is interesting and we recommend you look through it yourself, we will focus on only one question regarding the “burning question” faced by rich people.

What Is The Burning Question?

Among the questions in the survey, participants were asked the following about their retirement planning:

“Below are a set of common ”burning questions” regarding retirement planning. Please select up to three that are most important to you.”

The options presented (along with the percentage of respondents who selected that answer) were:

How will taxes impact me in retirement? – 34%

How much money will I need to retire comfortably? – 30%

Is it possible I could outlive my savings? – 30%

How can I plan for potential long-term care needs? – 29%

How should I budget for healthcare expenses? – 26%

What if the stock market drops when I’m retired? – 23%

What if inflation rises when I’m retired? – 21%

Will Social Security be there when I qualify for it? – 20%

Will I have enough to leave behind assets for loved ones or charitable causes I care about? – 20%

What Does This Mean?

More than one-third of respondents said that their main concern regarding retirement was how much taxes would impact their retirement. You would think that if someone is smart enough to make so much money, they would be able to figure out this question themselves since it is fairly easy to find out how much taxes one would have to pay in each tax bracket. However, after a bit more scrutiny, it becomes clear that their concern isn’t figuring out how much tax they will have to pay, but that they will have to pay taxes at all.

Rich people have more than enough money to retire for multiple lifetimes and will enjoy more luxuries in their twilight years than many other Americans will ever see in their lifetimes, yet many of them take it as a personal affront that they will have to contribute some of their wealth back to the society that made their riches possible.

This is why, in the same study, the very next question shows that more than 61% of rich people have a plan to further reduce their taxes after they retire.

It is interesting to see that rich retirees are more concerned with how to reduce or eliminate taxes instead of how to maximize their time or value once they retire. This is also reflected in the marketing and positioning of retirement products toward rich people.

Tied for second place are the concerns “How much money will I need to retire comfortably?” and “Is it possible I could outlive my savings?”. Retiring comfortably is a relative question that has a different value depending on who you ask. Of course, “comfortable” might have a drastically different definition to a rich person than to someone who struggled to make ends meet their whole life. The question of whether or not someone could outlive their retirement savings only makes sense if the wealthy person answering it has lost all perspective on the value of money and the cost of living.

There is no reasonable risk for a healthy person to outlive their retirement savings if they already have millions stashed away. Only through frivolous spending and bad money management would this become a problem.

Yet, probably the most interesting (and least surprising) result of this question is the fact that the least popular answer, receiving only 20% of the votes, was the only answer that had anything to do with family or loved ones: “Will I have enough to leave behind assets for loved ones or charitable causes I care about?”

This makes sense when compared to the statistics and generational characteristics of the Baby Boomer and Gen X cohorts that are either already retired or fast approaching retirement. These two generations have experienced unprecedented economic growth and were handed the reigns of a strong and vibrant economy on a silver platter, essentially giving them a free pass to economic success and huge amounts of wealth. At the same time, these two generations are the least likely in a long time to even consider leaving money behind for others. The attitude of entitlement, selfishness, and self-sufficiency is so ingrained in the Baby Boomer generation that it has caused a generational backlash through the Millennial and Gen Z cohorts, leading them to support more communal and socialist lifestyles.

The 2024 Planning and Progress Study does not go into any detail about the answers, or the respondents, or speculate about what the answers might mean, so we are left to our own intuition and research to understand why rich retirees are so scared of taxes and so unconcerned with their loved ones. It remains to be seen how these trends change over time as younger generations approach retirement.

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