Retirement spending

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This article is the entry point for the Retirement spending topic. It provides a high level summary of the information contained in the associated articles.

Overview
Many studies on retirement spending start with an assumed total savings at retirement and then estimate the spending that might be allowable each year afterwards. These studies are often especially concerned with estimating the maximum spending that will not lead to premature depletion of personal savings, known as the safe withdrawal rate. These models treat the Total Savings at Retirement as the key independent variable. The spending for each year in retirement is adjusted so that the savings last as long as planned.

This article series takes the opposite approach. They treat Retirement Spending as the key independent variable. You first develop an estimate of your desired spending in retirement. Next the planning process incorporates assumptions about your longevity, inflation, and investment returns. Finally, it gives an estimate for the total savings at retirement necessary to maintain this desired retirement spending.

Retirement spending
In some cases, you might need to explore the types and amounts of spending that you might expect in retirement. The following articles are good starting points for further reading:

Article: ''Inflation and retirement spending
 * An in-depth review of how price inflation is incorporated into retirement planning.

Article: Surveys of retirement spending
 * Discusses the recent results from the two main spending surveys conducted within the U.S.: The Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Expenditure Survey and the Health and Retirement Study. Includes tables with examples of retirement spending of average households across a range of income and marital status.

Article: Medical spending in retirement
 * Describes the impact medical spending could have on your retirement and how to incorporate it into your retirement planning.

Article: Retirement risk
 * Reviews the types of financial and health risks that might unexpectedly deplete your savings in retirement. Presents ways of incorporating these risks as optional spending in a retirement plan.

Models
In order to estimate a total savings target at retirement, you first need to supply information about your anticipated spending in retirement. The following articles explain various approaches used to mathematically model (provide a simplified representation of) retirement spending.

Article: Introduction to retirement spending models
 * This article provides a broad overview of the types of spending models that are currently used for retirement planning. Ranging from simple to complex, it gives an overview of each model's relative strengths and weaknesses. This article contains background information for the subsequent articles.

Article: Replacement rate models of retirement spending
 * An in-depth review of the replacement rate approach to modeling retirement spending.

Article: Budget models of retirement spending
 * An in-depth review of the budget (or expense) approach to modeling retirement spending.

Article: Models of spending as retirement progresses
 * An in-depth review of the models used to describe how retiree spending changes from retirement until death.

Article: Retirement calculators and spending
 * This article groups retirement calculators by the type(s) of retirement spending models they use.