This week, I’m talking about how to get back on track for retirement.

On Tuesday, I outlined the 4 primary factors that determine your success in retirement: 

• Asset allocation
• Savings Rate
• Retirement Date
• Spending in Retirement

Today I’m focusing on the 4th primary factor: your spending in retirement. 

What are your monthly living expenses to cover your basic needs? In addition to that, how much do you want to travel or eat out or budget for the other things you want to do? There’s also charitable giving and one-time expenses to consider, like paying for your daughter’s wedding, remodeling your kitchen, or buying a car after retirement. And the biggest question of all: what is healthcare going to cost in retirement? 

All of these questions can be answered, but it requires tracking where your money goes every month, and prioritizing those areas of spending that are important to you in retirement. 

One of the best things you can do as you get close to retirement, is closely track your expenses for 6 months. Find out where your money goes, and try to live this 6 months as if you’re already retired, so you can see what your expenses will likely be in retirement. Once you better understand your average basic living expenses on a monthly basis, you’ve done most of the homework, since we can easily add in expected healthcare costs, budget for travel and other activities, and throw in one-time expenses, once those basic living expenses are better understood. 

If you want some help calculating your monthly expenses, send me an email and I will send you my favorite budget worksheet that I send to all of my clients to help them calculate their basic living expenses for retirement. You can email me at [email protected]. That’s [email protected]. 

That’s it for today, thanks for listening. My name is Ashley Micciche and this is the One Minute Retirement Tip. 

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