Retirement Spending Planner

Why one inflation rate is not enough. Most calculators apply a single rate to your whole budget, which quietly assumes healthcare behaves like groceries. It has not. Two categories compounding at different rates diverge, and over a long retirement that divergence is the difference between a comfortable plan and a squeezed one. Set both rates the same above and watch the effect vanish — that is the proof it is the gap doing the work, not the level.

What it means in practice. Discretionary spending is the shock absorber: it is the part you can cut when markets fall or costs climb. The bigger healthcare grows as a share of the budget, the less absorber you have left — which is the same reason a bad early market year hurts so much. Fidelity estimates a single 65-year-old retiring in 2025 needs about $172,500 for healthcare costs over retirement, excluding long-term care.

You supply the inflation rates; we do not forecast them. Historical healthcare inflation has generally outpaced general inflation, but by an amount that varies a great deal by year and by person, so the honest thing is to let you test a range rather than publish a number as if it were fact. Excludes long-term care, which is the largest uncovered risk in most retirements. Educational estimate, not financial advice.