How to Calculate Your Retirement Spending
Anticipating what you might spend in retirement is critical for determining how much to save for it. Experts say you should expect to need 80 percent of your current income during this period to maintain your quality of life, which means that if your salary is $63,000, you’ll likely require about $50,400 a year for your expenditures.
However, retirement costs can be highly individualized and influenced by factors like where you live, your hobbies, your travel habits, and your health. Review the considerations in the following areas to help you estimate how much money you’ll need to fund your retirement years.

Housing
Retirees who have paid off their mortgage, downsized, or relocated can anticipate paying less for housing than they did during their working years. But even if you find ways such as these to reduce your living costs, you might still have other living expenses to cover, including rent, homeowners insurance, maintenance, property taxes, or utility bills. Research shows that once you’re over sixty-five, you should probably expect to shell out nearly $1,600 a month ($19,000 a year) for housing-related expenses, making putting a roof over your head perhaps your most significant retirement expense.
Health care
Unfortunately, how much your medical care will cost can be the toughest spending category to estimate since both your medical bills and your health status as you age can be challenging to predict. Medicare can help you cover at least some of these expenditures, but you’ll typically still have to pay premiums. In general, retirees spend about 13 percent of their total retirement income on health care, with the median amount being nearly $586 a month ($7,030 a year), much of which goes toward Medicare payments. Meanwhile, Fidelity estimates that the average couple retiring at sixty-five can expect to pay $315,000 on health care over the course of their retirement.
Food
How much you may fork out on food once you retire can also vary considerably, depending on variables like your location and whether you prepare homemade foods often or prefer to dine at fine restaurants. Data shows that food costs for US households managed by someone over sixty-five averages at just over $540 monthly ($6,480 annually).

Recreation
If you expect to fill your days with big-budget activities like traveling to far-off places, you’ll want to raise your spending estimate 10 to 20 percent (to 90 or even 100 percent of your preretirement income). Individuals over sixty-five spend an average just over $240 monthly ($2,880 annually) on hobbies and entertainment, such as going to the movies, seeing a play, or visiting a museum.
Transportation
Transportation costs can vary significantly from person to person during retirement depending on lifestyle. If you tend to travel mostly about town, they should trend on the lower side, but if you take frequent vacations or often jet off to visit children in far-flung places, they’ll be higher. Data shows that retirees spend about $600 monthly ($7,200 yearly) on their travels overall.
Calculating how much money you’ll require to meet your financial obligations and support your lifestyle upon retiring will require carefully considering many of the facets of this phase of your life. To help you come to a more accurate estimation, be sure to reach out to your financial advisor