Retirement planning
Can Your Savings Cover Your Monthly Expenses?
A simple framework for comparing retirement savings with groceries, utilities, insurance, healthcare, taxes, and other monthly costs.
Planning tool
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Estimate what your current savings could provide in monthly income, practical expense coverage, and long-term growth snapshots.
List expenses before estimating income
- Separate essential expenses from flexible lifestyle spending.
- Include annual costs by converting them into monthly amounts.
- Review healthcare, insurance, taxes, and housing carefully.
Compare savings income with the real gap
- Add Social Security, pension, annuity, and other income sources first.
- Use savings to estimate how much of the remaining gap could be covered.
- Be cautious about depending on high withdrawals.
Adjust the plan gradually
- Cutting expenses can reduce the income savings need to replace.
- Delaying withdrawals may improve flexibility for some households.
- Smaller recurring expenses often matter more than one-time cuts.