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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]https://www.nerdwallet.com/investing/retirement-calculator[/quote]

This calculator stupidly assumes that I need as much money during retirement as I need now when I will:

- have paid off my house
-no expenses for private school or college
- no more trips for 4 persons (plus no more expensive ski trips)
-no more expensive hobbies for DCs to pay (horses, sailing, etc)

There is no way I will need all of this. There is also no way I can pay for extended qualified home care. So what’s the point of this ridiculous calculator?[/quote]

It’s not ridiculous. You’ll find new things to spend money on. You can eliminate income that went toward savings and work-related expenses (commuting costs). But other than that, most retirees who *can* spend about as much as they did before. Travel, expensive hobbies of your own, grandchildren, etc. Do you really plan to sit around your house all day?

Signed, a retired person[/quote]

Well, obviously. One could always just spend *more*. I could go on luxury trips that cost $20k per trip or I could do the same trip on $2k. I could buy expensive clothes, get the best concert tickets at $350 per person, or I could go to the local university and get a similar experience for $20. I could take senior classes at the local college for next to nothing or go on guided archeological tours for a multiple. I mean there are no limits to spending money. Doesn’t mean I will become wasteful in retirement.[/quote]

Those $2,000 trips add up when you have the time to take more of them.  This was us last year — we didn’t take any one expensive trip, but all the small ones (vast majority were road trips) really added up.

However, if that’s truly your lifestyle now, then you should be fine. The point is that you shouldn’t believe you are going to be happy with dramatic changes in your COL/standard of living that aren’t obvious (e.g., no more private school tuition) just because “retired” or “moved to a LCOL area.” Sure, like pp, people can live on $70k a year if they only travel domestically to see family members twice a year. However, I suspect pp’s parents weren’t making $300k+ and spending a large chunk of that when they were employed. Many have this attitude that they suddenly won’t want to do things that they like to now just because they’ll be older.  Most 60-70 year olds are healthy enough these days, that this isn’t true, and once you’re old enough that this is actually true, health care expenses will eat up any additional money. [/quote]

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