The same personality traits that help people save for retirement become probleatic when it is time to enjoy that money during retireent.
Some people find it difficult (or nearly impossible) to shift gears after years of being frugal. These are people who have spent years only spending part of their income, saving some income for their retirement and rarely dipping into capital. The problem is that in retirement one is allowed to dip into capital, albeit carefully. General wisdom is that one can withdraw 4% of one’s capital each year one is retired but of course each person has to make the exact calculation themselves, depending on required minimum distributions, social security income, etc.
Some retirees are so afraid to dip into capital that they spend less than they can afford or they invest in hi risk stocks or bonds in an attempt to increase income. Sometimes these strategies work out well but often they do not.
Young people tend to underestimate their longevity and older people overestimate theirs, assuming you will live onger than you actually will. According to the Social Security Adinistration a man who is 65 years old can expect to live until 84.3 and a woman who is 65 can expect to live until 86.6. Of course, one of every 4 65 years old will live past 90 and 1 in 10 will live past 95, so one never knows exactly what their lifespan will be. The point is that overestimating how long you will live causes people to underestimate how much they an spend.
The challenge is to to identify what brings you joy at this point in your life and to organize your finances to maximize these activities.
Finally many people believe that the time to give money to your friends is relatives is after you have died, often out of fear that they will run out of money. There are others of us who prefer to give what we can to our dear ones while we are still alive and embrace the joy of giving. Of course these gifts must be in line with your value system.