REVERSE MORTGAGE INFORMATION: Tools, News and Resources to Help Seniors Decide

404 page not found

Retirement Spending Expenditures

 


Senior Spending Patterns for Reality Retirement Planning
Characteristics: Age 55-64 Age 65-74 Age 75 & Older
Income before taxes ... $61,031   $42,137   $28,028  
Average number in consumer unit:            
Persons ... 2.1   1.9   1.5  
Vehicles ... 2.2   1.9   1.2  
Percent homeowner ... 83%   83%   78%  
    % of Total   % of Total   % of Total
Average annual expenditures ... $47,299   $36,512   $25,673  
Food ... 5,898 13% 4,871 13% 3,518 14%
Food at home ... 3,374   3,049   2,380  
Food away from home ... 2,524   1,822   1,138  
Alcoholic beverages ... 457 1% 329 1% 190 1%
Housing ... 14,339 30% 11,152 31% 9,381 36%
Apparel and services ... 1,863 4% 1,200 3% 604 2%
Transportation ... 8,421 18% 6,506 18% 3,286 13%
Healthcare ... 3,262 7% 3,799 10% 3,995 16%
Entertainment ... 2,823 6% 1,879 5% 990 4%
Personal care products and services ... 628 1% 514 1% 421 2%
Reading ... 177 0% 158 0% 135 1%
Education ... 730 2% 352 1% 198 1%
Tobacco products and smoking supplies ... 301 1% 197 1% 98 0%
Miscellaneous ... 825 2% 735 2% 547 2%
Cash contributions ... 1,752 4% 2,471 7% 1,542 6%
Personal insurance and pensions ... 5,825 12% 2,348 6% 856 3%
    100%   100%   100%
Source: Consumer Expenditures in 2004 U.S. Department of Labor-Bureau of Labor Statistics, April 2006 (Report 992)
Social tagging: >

2 Responses to “Retirement Spending Expenditures”

  1. Arthur Prunier Says:

    Your use of the BLS Consumer Expenditure Table data contains an error. Ty Bernicke made the same error in his original “Reality Retirement Planning” article. The “Personal insurance and pensions” entry line in these tables primarily contains the average RETIREMENT SAVINGS in the form of Social Security payroll deductions and other savings. You need to subtract out the retirement savings BEFORE calculating the annual spending reduction for the average retiree. Savings and spending should never be intermingled! A secondary error in Bernicke’s original paper was not to make a correction for the different average number of “Consumer Units” for the various age groups.

    You can read more about these issues in the Wiki article .

  2. Says:

    [...] Helpful Websites: 1. Retirement Planning Calculator 2. Pension Calculator 3. Retirement Spending Expenditures [...]