This is a common question that most start to consider as they approach their retirement years. There are typically 3 phases of retirement spending that one will age through. Watch this video to learn more.
Today we’re going to talk about how much you need to retire, which is a very common question that everyone eventually asks when they’re thinking about their future years. And the answer is really not simple. However, a good gauge is how much you’re currently spending.
Most retirees find that they don’t spend a whole lot less from their working years to their retirement years. Especially in the early stages of retirement. So a good planning strategy is to make sure that you’ve got enough of a retirement income when you’re starting retirement to approximate what you’re spending in your working years.
None of us know when our expiry date is, which is a factor in understanding how much you’ll need to save to provide you with that income for a lifetime. If we knew, it would be a lot easier to plan. But what you can do is make sure that you’re looking at where all of your assets are going to be coming from. Some people have pensions through work, and of course, all of the dollars that we save for our retirement will be added together to provide that income in retirement.
Having a proper financial plan completed along with projections to ensure you know where your income is going to be coming from in your retirement, how that’s going to be taxed, and what your net result will be is very important.
When you enter retirement, we find that there tends to be three phases of retirement income needs. In your early years of retirement, you’re going to need an income quite similar to your working years as this is typically when you are in your best health and interested in pursuing some of the hobbies and activities that you didn’t have time to pursue when you were working. That typically lasts from the time that you retire until maybe 75 or 80.
Once you hit your 80s, for most people they’re going to slow down and so will your spending. Oftentimes, the spending shifts from things that you might want to buy or do to being able to shift some of your wealth to the next generation. You might be thinking about giving money to children or grandkids. And you may be just done with travel and some of the major expenditures that people tend to pursue in their early retirement years. You will still spend money, and you want to make sure you have enough income to meet the needs of those years, but it will change.
The final phase of retirement spending is the later years of retirement. That third phase tends to be a lot of a slower spend, however, the challenge with the third phase of retirement is that sometimes there are healthcare costs. Healthcare costs can be really difficult to predict. We don’t know if somebody is going to need care, and it can be particularly challenging for couples. If one person needs care while the other is able to remain at home, you can end up having double the costs of living at this stage of life.
It is really important to build a buffer into your retirement plan so that if need be, you have assets available for that phase of life and potential healthcare costs that could arise.
If you haven’t done a projection, please reach out to your advisor so that you have a good understanding of what your retirement income is going to look like and that you have everything you need to make your retirement comfortable. You can learn more about our retirement planning services and approach here.