Nine Things You’ll Spend More on in Retirement

1. You’ll spend more on travel in retirement

Most retirees put “travel” at the top of the list of things to do more of in their post-work years.

Maybe you plan to set off on a cruise or two. Or perhaps you simply want to pack up your car for weekend getaways with your grandkids. Either way, you may find yourself spending more on travel in retirement than you bargained for. The customer-starved travel industry is eager to get retirees back on the boat, bus, train, or into an RV.

While overall transportation expenses decline throughout retirement, many retirees take the kind of trips they could only dream about while working full-time. For instance, compared with their working peers, retirees choose longer cruises and cruises that visit more destinations, according to travel experts.

Deborah L. Meyer, a Certified Financial Planner and founder of fiduciary advisory firm WorthyNest, recommends a five-step plan for pre-retirees looking to turn these dreams into reality:

1. Assign specific cost estimates to travel goals
2. Break the big savings goal into monthly or quarterly allocations to savings
3. Adjust income and expenses to make room for the regular savings
4. Don’t compromise on future goals (that is, beyond the trip)
5. Act on achieved goals

2. You’ll spend more on health care in retirement

It's a blast to kick back and make big travel plans in retirement. Less fun: The reality that we spend more on medical care after we retire — and that those costs keep increasing as we age. According to the 2025 Retiree Health Care Cost Estimate by IRMAA, a 65-year-old couple, who are both planning to retire in 2025 and are both non-smokers, and who plan to live until age 85 for the female and 83 for the male should expect to pay $319,000 throughout retirement for their health coverage.

Unpredictable and costly new diagnoses and hospitalizations drive much of the increase in health care spending for the average retired household, but overall spending rises for general health needs, health insurance, prescription medication, medical supplies and medical services as well. As a 2024 report by the National Council on Aging points out, nearly 95% of adults 60 and older have at least one chronic condition, while nearly 80% have two or more.

3. You’ll spend more on moving and relocating in retirement

Empty-nesters tend to relocate in retirement. Downsizing that multi-bedroom home for smaller living quarters, and ones that may be more mobility-friendly, is an obvious strategy that could save money in the long run. For the most part, that’s true. But the move-out process can set you back financially.

You can easily be left paying thousands of dollars in related expenses:

1. Getting one home ready to sell
2. Listing an existing house
3. Buying a new home
4. Settlement and moving costs

Not to mention upgrading appliances, new lighting, window treatments, and all the other tweaks you’ll do to a new living space, like these 13 home features today's buyers want most.

According to Mike Palmer, a certified financial planner with Ark Royal Wealth Management in North Carolina, downsizing in full retirement can present huge unexpected costs for some of his clients, particularly when they want to stay within urban areas. “I see a lot of folks thinking they’re going to walk away with $200,000 [by downsizing], but that’s rare. In most cases, it will be lateral,” he says. To avoid this, he recommends trying to move from an urban area to a more rural one.

4. You’ll spend more on fitness in retirement

Research indicates that retirement itself is a motivator to get fit. With a flexible schedule free of commuting and the stress of a busy work week, many retirees drop unhealthy habits and pick up healthier ones, raising their spending on gym memberships, fitness classes and equipment (a new bicycle, perhaps?).

Marguerita Cheng, the chief executive officer of Blue Ocean Global Wealth, says that fitness is one of the biggest new expenses she sees her retired clients take on. For her clients, she says, it is often the fear of declining health as they age that motivates them to take fitness seriously. Some of her clients put so much time and money into fitness that they schedule meetings with her around their yoga or spinning classes.

Unfortunately, according to the Department of Health and Human Services, less than 15% of Americans age 65 and older get the recommended amounts of aerobic and muscle-strengthening physical activity. But physical activity is one of the best ways older adults can improve their overall health, so it's worth the extra expense.

And you may have a workaround to gym costs: Some Medicare Advantage plans have a free or almost free gym membership as part of their benefits.

5. You’ll spend more on day-to-day expenses in retirement

As they transition into retirement, many people’s lives aren’t radically altered. They may still drive to meet with friends or associates, grab a beer from around the corner, or use their laptop to do work from the comfort of their couch. What often does change after leaving the workforce, however, is who picks up the bill for a lot of the small stuff — lunches, parking, dinners, concert tickets. In short, so long, expensing!

"Small-business owners and professionals who retire are often surprised at how many of their expenses were picked up by their company," says Bert Whitehead, president of Cambridge Connection, in Franklin, Mich. "It is a jolt when they discover how much it adds up to."

6. You’ll spend more on debt in retirement

Retirees are especially vulnerable to accumulating debt and subsequent interest. Although the average debt ballooned across all age groups between 1989 and today, older retirees were by far the hardest hit. According to Experian’s 2024 Consumer Credit Review, baby boomers (including those aged 65–74) had an average credit card debt of $6,245 in 2023.

2024 data from the Federal Reserve indicates that mortgage debt is the largest component of household debt for older adults, with 25% of households aged 65+ carrying mortgages in 2019.

Experian notes that the average mortgage debt for this group was approximately $202,000 in 2024. Plus, 2024 Federal Student Aid data indicates that 97,300 federal borrowers aged 62 and older owed an average of $47,893,

If bills are beginning to pile up, don’t hesitate to ask for help. Focus on paying off the cards with the highest rates first, and consider consolidating your balances on one of the best balance transfer credit cards offering a 0% interest rate, if it will take more than a few months to pay off each card.

The National Council on Aging also offers tips for seniors to manage debt.

7. You’ll spend more on charitable giving in retirement

Approximately 80–88% of households aged 65+ donated to charity in 2023, according to the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy (2025), with the Silent Generation (79+, born 1928–1945) at 88% and Baby Boomers (60–78, born 1946–1964) at 80%. Affluent households aged 65+ with a net worth of $1M+ or an income of $200K+ gave an average of $34,917 in 2022, per the 2023 Bank of America Study of Philanthropy.

Part of this phenomenon is psychological. Researchers have found that older adults take more pleasure in charitable donations than their younger counterparts. On the other hand, older retirees may have less control over their finances than they realize. A diminished capacity for financial decision-making in retirement is “extremely common,” says Daniel Marson, a neurology professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. “In fact, I might say it’s inevitable.”

While many retirees have no problem managing their money into old age, it never hurts to have a trusted family member keep an eye on things. Services such as EverSafe, for example, allow a designated family member to monitor a retiree’s finances and get alerts in case of excessive withdrawals, changes in spending patterns and other unusual activity — all without the retiree losing control of their money.

8. You’ll spend more on car and home insurance in retirement

If you drive or own your own home, insurance is an expense you can do without. Unfortunately, it is one cost that continues to climb. For instance, the average cost of homeowners' insurance in the U.S. is about $1,411 annually, according to Progressive. Prices can vary significantly based on factors like home value, location and coverage options.

Progressive also states that the annual cost of auto insurance can range from about $79.83 to $157.27 per month, depending on location, driving record, and the type of coverage.

What should you do? Consider working with an insurance broker who represents multiple insurance companies (and receives commissions from them on sales) and can shop for better rates on comparable policies, Parker says. He did this after his car insurance increased by 20% in one year and ended up saving thousands. Parker also advises reviewing how much coverage you need, especially in multicar families — some of his savings came from scaling back to collision-only coverage on one older vehicle — and looking into bundling home and car insurance. Many insurers offer discounts if you buy both from them, typically running around 20%, according to Bankrate.

9. You’ll spend more on financial planning in retirement

If you’re entering retirement with accumulated wealth, that’s great. You may have done so with guidance from a financial planner, but then again, maybe you’ve had good luck along with regular 401(k) contributions using some sort of robo-adviser service.

But remember, the more wealth you’ve collected, however, the more elbow grease it’ll take to manage that money and make it work for you. That’s where financial advisers come in. Their services can be invaluable, but they’re not free. Depending on the management style you prefer, figuring out what to do with your money can become an expense in its own right.

Fee-only planners may charge a flat annual retainer (which could run a few thousand dollars or more), or they may charge on an hourly basis (often from $100 to $250 per hour), by the project (from $1,000 up to $10,000 for a comprehensive plan) or, if they’re managing your investments, as a percentage of assets (from about 0.5% to 1.25% of your investable assets). Or they may use some combination of those billing models.

According to AARP, retirees should continue to use financial planners to assist with relocating, managing new medical expenses, and addressing changing financial needs.

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