Ensuring Your Lifestyle in Retirement

How do you ensure your lifestyle in retirement, and what do you want that lifestyle to look like? Think about what you really want in retirement from a lifestyle perspective. Do you want to travel? Purchase a second home? Do you want to live closer to your children and grandchildren? What are the things you want to be doing with your newfound freedom?

Finances

The first part of retirement might be filled with a bucket list of to-do items. And, then you might slow down after you’ve checked some items off that list. Those early years of retirement could include items that cost a little more money, and you can budget for that. Once you get further into retirement, sometimes the thinking is that spending will drop off because you won’t be doing as much. You have to be mindful of that kind of thinking. Yes, your discretionary spending might gradually slow down, but your medical costs might be going up. According to Fidelity’s 20^th Annual Retiree Health Care Cost Estimate, a couple retiring in 2021 will expect to spend $300,000 on medical expenses throughout retirement, a 30% increase since 2010.

“While this past year has certainly made protecting our health today a priority, we need to do the same when planning for future health care needs,” said Hope Manion, senior vice president, Fidelity Workplace Consulting. “Covering health care costs is one of the most significant, yet unpredictable, aspects of retirement planning. By providing this estimate for retirees, we want to increase awareness among people of all ages to help them proactively get more engaged in saving and investing, so they can be better prepared in years to come.”¹

You have to be able to plan for your needs and living expenses, but also plan for your desires for retirement. It is important to know what your budget will be in retirement and how to plan for the list of things you want to do while retired.

Structuring your days

Your routine in retirement is extremely important. It is very alluring to think that during retirement you will have no schedule or anything to worry about day to day. But the reality is routine and structure are a very important part of our lives. When you retire, you lose a lot of that routine – driving into the office every morning, grocery shopping after work, or spending weekends doing yard work. It is important to create routine and structure when you first retire. A lot of retirees are busier in retirement than they were in their working years. Their days are now filled with the things they enjoy doing. Have a few things that you can do every week to create a little bit of routine as you transition into retirement.

You’ve worked your entire life, and now you want to enjoy that hard work with a little fun. We talk about wanting to live the best years of your life your way. That is about being able to have the lifestyle you desire in retirement. It is a crucial part of any retirement plan.