Expenses

7 Ways Your Expenses Will Change in Retirement

Transportation and clothing costs decline, but watch out for new health care costs.

Listener Questions: What Should I Be Doing When I'm Two Years from Retirement?

In this episode, Roger Whitney breaks down essential elements you need to consider before and during retirement. From understanding inflation risks to strategic asset reallocation, this episode offers...

Increase Your Discretionary Retirement Spending While You Are Healthy and Active

We’ve all read the research about the “Go-go, slow-go and no-go” periods of retirement and decreased real-dollar spending as we age, but contrary to observed research, most decumulation strategies tod...

Top 20 Reasons Why I Recommend the Actuarial Approach for Managing Spending and Investing in Retirement

The Actuarial Approach: Employs an easy-to-understand and robust financial metric (Household Funded Status) Permits adoption of easy-to-implement guardrails that suggest future spending changes Uses b...

Healthcare Before Medicare: Retiree Feedback

Roger Whitney dives into practical strategies for navigating health care before Medicare, sharing insights from retirees, survey results, and listener questions. Together they explore real-world solut...

Why Retiring at 55 is Better than 65 (The "3x" Rule)

Retiring at 55 is not just retiring ten years earlier. It changes the entire math of your life. From 55 to 65, expenses are often at their highest. You are covering healthcare before Medicare, traveli...

Can You Afford to Remodel Your Home in Retirement?

Your spouse wants to remodel your kitchen and several bathrooms in your house. You’ve received a quote for the work for about $100,000. Using a strategic withdrawal approach and a Monte Carlo modeling...

Should You Give Away Your Money in Retirement?

Jeremy Keil weighs the opportunities and risks associated with giving your money away to your kids and charity. Most retirees I talk with don’t worry about whether they can give money away. They worry...

How Long Do You and Your Spouse Plan to Live, Part 2

This post is follow-up to our post of December 22, 2024 and will again highlight the benefits of using the Actuaries Longevity Illustrator (ALI) to help you develop reasonable lifetime planning period...

7 Year-End Money Moves Before December 31

Jeremy Keil explores 7 money moves you can consider before the new year to lower your taxes and keep more of your money in retirement. Every December, people scramble to finish holiday shopping, trave...

Year-End Planning: Annual Gifting Rules

In this episode, Roger Whitney, a retirement planner with 30 years of experience, breaks down annual gifting limits and year-end planning. He shares practical strategies for giving that make a real im...

Most Retirement Advice Fails Singles (Here’s What to Do Instead)

Most retirement advice quietly assumes you have a partner: two incomes, two Social Security checks, someone to split expenses with, someone to catch the slack if something goes wrong. But for singles,...

Year-End Planning: Tax-Loss Harvesting

? Show Notes In this episode, Roger Whitney kicks off a month-long series on year-end planning for retirement. He shares insights on tax loss harvesting, a technique that can help you minimize capital...

Should I Use My Traditional IRA to Fund My Life or Do Roth Conversions?

? Show Notes In this Thanksgiving Eve episode, Roger Whitney encourages listeners to carry gratitude into everyday life, emphasizing the value of recognizing specific moments and taking “mental snapsh...

How Much More Can You Afford to Spend in 2026?

It’s not too early to start planning your spending for 2026 even though you haven’t yet determined your January 1, 2026 Funded Status. You or your spouse may be considering spending in 202...

Retirement Benchmarks by Age: 40, 50, 60 (And What If You’re Behind?)

Those “3x by 40, 6x by 50, 10x by 67” charts feel official—until your life doesn’t match the average. In this episode, James shows why age-based savings benchmarks miss the mar...

Retirement Ravaging Risks That Could Slash Your Nest Egg, Ep #250

When people think of what could haunt their retirement, they often imagine running out of money, facing unexpected expenses, or living too long. But as we discuss in this episode, there's a more insid...

Inbox Questions | Why Use Your IRA First for Long-Term Care Expenses?

In this episode, we tackle Richard's question about why it might make sense to use IRA (non-Roth) accounts first to pay for long-term care expenses. We'll explain the reasoning behind this strategy, i...

Inbox Questions | Reducing Taxes and Managing RMDs

In this episode, we tackle Kay's questions about managing her IRA and Roth accounts in retirement. With significant assets, no LTC insurance, and children in differing financial circumstances, Kay wan...

Inbox Questions | Prescription Prices: A Rant and a Response

Today's episode is part rant, part answer to Mike's question about the high cost of prescription drugs under Medicare Part D. We dive into why these costs are so steep, explore alternatives like Canad...

The Actuarial Approach Addresses the “Big Flaw” in Most Decumulation Approaches

Recently, in her Motley Fool article, A Big Reason the Famous 4% Rule May Not Work for Your Retirement, Maurie Backman confirmed what we have been telling our readers for years—you aren’t ...

?? Retirement Expenses That Keep Climbing (AARP Article)

FROM THE ARTICLE. Don’t let rising expenses derail your plans. By Sharon Wu, AARP. Published October 09, 2025. Key takeaways! [*] Budget for out-of-pocket health care costs and consider a dedica...

Self-Insuring Your Long-Term Care? What is the Present Value of Your Future Long-Term Care Expenses?

At How Much Can I Afford to Spend in Retirement? we encourage retired households to periodically compare the present value of their retirement assets with the present value of their spending liabiliti...