Average Spending by Age for Those 55 and Up: Are You Thrifty?

Budgeting for retirement is never an exact science. Sure, you can get a close estimate, but until you are in the throes of it, you really won’t know how much you need.

Many factors contribute to your day-to-day spending, including your age. Retirement tends to play out in stages–from the early go-go days to the final no-go days, and so too will how you spend your retirement money.

When it comes to what retirees are spending on, there are some key areas closely tracked by the government and economists. They include housing, transportation, food, health care, entertainment, insurance and apparel. Although these categories don't cover all of your future expenses, knowing how much others spend on them can help you start building your own retirement budget.

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Housing’s declining burden

Unless you paid off your mortgage or have a ridiculously cheap rent control apartment, it's likely that housing accounts for the largest portion of your budget. That is still true in retirement, but what’s new is that it’s a smaller overall portion.

The average household between the ages of 55 and 64 spent $25,595 on housing in 2023. That compares to $20,370 for those 75 and older, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Expenditures in 2023 report. People downsize, relocate to cheaper places or pay off their mortgage when they retire. That makes their housing more affordable.

Healthcare’s growing cost

Healthcare is another area of retirement that is impacted by age. But unlike housing, it tends to increase the older we get. How much? People between the ages of 55 and 64 spent $7,164 on healthcare in 2023. It was $8,145 for those 75 and older, according to the BLS.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise. As people get older, they tend to require more healthcare and suffer from more chronic diseases that require prescription medicine.

The need for long-term care and caregiving also drives up the costs of healthcare. Fidelity Investments estimates that a 65-year-old retiring in 2025 will spend $172,500 in healthcare over his or her lifetime. That includes Medicare and excludes any stays in a long-term care facility.

Transportation costs decline….it depends

Whether your transportation costs will decline in retirement depends on your lifestyle. If your hobby is collecting antique cars, taking long road trips, or buying an RV and seeing the country, then your transportation costs will likely increase. But if you no longer commute and don’t plan to travel a lot in retirement, transportation costs should go down.

Either way, one thing you can take to the bank: the older you get, the less you’ll spend on this category. People in their mid-50s to mid-60s spent $14,443 on transportation in 2023, compared to $10,899 for people in their mid-60s to 70s. People 75 and beyond spent even less, roughly $6,448, according to the Consumer Expenditure Survey data for 2023.

Lifestyle expenses

Lifestyle creep is real in retirement, especially in the go-go days. People are so excited to be retired and rush to catch up on lost time traveling here and there. Before they know it, they burn through more of their savings than anticipated.

Keeping lifestyle creep in check is important in retirement, especially since it can last decades.

The good news is that even if you can’t, it's an expenditure that is likely to come down with age. For 2023, people between 55 and 65 spent $10,069 for food, $1,927 for entertainment and $3,899 for apparel. Once they hit their late 60s and early 70s, those expenditures decreased to $8,566, $1,520 and $3,447, respectively. By 75 and beyond, spending on all three categories declined.

Use average spending figures as a guidepost

Everyone’s situation is unique, but to give you a sense of how much people across the country are paying annually for key categories in retirement based on age, we’ve put together the table below based on the BLS data from 2023.

A guide not a rule

Planning for retirement can seem like a daunting endeavor. There are a lot of moving parts — your budget being one of them. Having an idea of what other people are spending based on their age can be a starting point, but how much you’ll need will depend on your unique situation.

The good news is that at least you know that in most categories, the older you get, the less you’ll spend.

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