The foremost fear of anyone in (or approaching) retirement is that they will manage to outlive their savings.

Projecting your needed income for retirement is a difficult task. It requires looking into the future for decades and matching anticipated needs with the resources you expect to have available. There are hundreds of internet retirement calculators available to assist, but most assume that a household’s current spending level will inexorably increase each year due to inflation. Even with moderate inflation assumptions, the result is often a discouragingly unrealistic retirement plan.

But in reality, actual retirement spending data show that most households spend less as they age.

The Reality Retirement Calculator allows you to take this essential fact into account in preparing your plan. The calculator is designed to project, based on information you provide, a realistic appraisal of your retirement spending needs and the savings goal needed to meet these needs.

As example, during the initial years of retirement, many households experience higher spending levels as long put-off trips, new cars, or other retirement “rewards” are bought. After several years, though, spending tends to taper off in many areas such as entertainment.

The Reality Retirement Calculator allows you to adjust for these trends. It does not disregard inflation but rather allows you to offset this force with spending reduction factors that occur naturally with aging.

Specific spending reduction factors are entirely up to the user, but averages based on national data are used as defaults.

Hopefully, the Reality Retirement Calculator will be a useful tool for you to use as you consider your retirement needs and the role that a reverse mortgage may play.