D E C I D E

“Nothing happens until you decide.

Make a decision and watch your life move forward.”

— Oprah Winfrey

RESOURCES FOR DECIDING

AVERAGE EXPENSES

Most of the retirement resources available focus on one thing (money) for a very good reason. For most people, the decision to retire from full-time employment must be made carefully and deliberately so that housing, health care, and other living/travel expenses will fit within the budget that might be expected to last for 30 or more years, depending on your age.

Households run by adults 65 and older generally spend an average of $48,872 per year or roughly $4100 per month. If you are single, however, your spending could be closer to $10,000 less or roughly $3200 per month.

Try using the Elder Index if you want to determine monthly and annual expenses in up to four counties based on household size (single vs. couple), location, housing status (renter, mortgage, no mortgage), and health status (excellent, good, poor).

Many experts advise that you create an overall financial plan and budget over the course of the five years prior to your retirement from full-time employment. In addition to consulting your own financial planner, there are some retirement planners/calculators available online for free or a subscription fee:

For a helpful discussion of the taxes owed by U.S. retirees, see this article from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College and other articles under the BUDGET section below.

Housing

For most people over the age of 50 in the United States, housing is one of their largest expenses accounting for 45-46% of total expenditures in 2017. By age 65, however, 72% of homeowners are likely to own their home without a mortgage and have more than $200,000 in equity.

Transportation, Food, and Health Care

After housing, the second-largest expense for U.S. adults over age 50 is transportation which, combined with food and health care costs, accounted for 32-33% of their expenses in 2017. Note that any budget should also account for out-of-pocket health care costs. Assuming that you retire at 65 and are eligible for Medicare, men are expected to need another $133,000 to cover out-of-pocket health care costs throughout retirement while women will need $147,000 because they are expected to live longer. If you retire before age 65, you should research the options available to bridge the gap to Medicare eligibility because even those with some form of health care coverage may be forced to pay significant premiums out of their savings.

Travel

For some retirees, travel could become a significant expense (averaging $11,077 a year) that should be budgeted. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Expenditure Interview Survey, average travel expenditures on domestic and international trips were $583 and $3273, respectively, in 2013.

Begin the research process by identifying and prioritizing those trips that are physically demanding and pursue senior discounts to maximize the budget. The Senior List, DealNews, and Second Wind Movement have updated lists of senior discounts that should get you started.

Caregivers

Finally, your budget should also factor in the funds necessary in the event that you need to pay for additional caregivers. Consult the following websites to estimate those costs:

Senior Living
Genworth Cost of Care Survey Tool (provides costs of in-home, community and assisted living, and nursing home care by city, state, or zip code; compares costs in two locations; and predicts future costs)
Paying For Seniorcare
MarketWatch
A Place for Mom’s Elder Card Costs Comparison

Note that general articles on caring for aging family members can be found on the HOME-DO page under the Caring for Aging Family Member tab.

DOWNSIZING OR RIGHTSIZING

If your current home has many empty rooms gathering dust, you need to consider whether you can and should downsize in your current location or elsewhere. There are a few books about downsizing that might help you plan your purge:

If you can’t handle it on your own, there are companies that specialize in helping you downsize or sell items that you no longer want:

Try using the calculator at SquaredAway.bc.edu to see how much money you will save by moving.

If you have always loved your house and can maintain the property (and don’t need access to the equity to fund your retirement), then downsizing may not be part of your plans. In fact, 49% of retirees surveyed did not downsize in their last move, and 30% moved into a larger home to accommodate visitors or elderly parents/boomerang adult children.

For a discussion of when to move after 50, see Should I Stay or Should I Go Now? A Quiz To Help You Decide When to Move After 50.

AGING AT HOME

It might come as a shock to some, but the vast majority of retirees these days do not plan to leave their state. Nor do they plan to live in age-restricted retirement communities. Instead, the number one choice for retirees’ long-term care is to age in place in their own homes. For resources to support aging at home, see the following websites:

RENTING OR BUYING

If you decide against aging in place, the next decision that you’ll face is whether to rent or buy your next home. There are a number of factors to consider, but experts generally agree that it makes sense to rent first unless you know that you want to stay in a particular home for more than three to five years in order to justify the costs of moving.

Renting is also advisable if you are adjusting to a new retirement lifestyle or are planning to move to a new area because you might need more time to commit. In addition to giving you added flexibility, renting is a good idea if the rent is significantly cheaper than your current housing costs after factoring in (1) a 3% annual rent increase, (2) 1-2% homeowner maintenance costs, and (3) rising property taxes and homeowner insurance costs.

TYPE OF HOME

Before you start your search, you might want to consider the pros and cons of living in a detached single-family home, a zero-lot-line home, an apartment, a townhouse, or a condominium.

TYPE OF COMMUNITY

- - Retirement Communities

If you decide to move, you should also consider whether you would like to live in a senior living community that focuses on independent living or assisted living. See SeniorLiving.org’s interactive graph to get an idea of how the different types of senior care overlap and the relationship between the level of care and cost.

Note that the average monthly charge at continuing care retirement communities (CCRCs) was $3555 in late 2021 (with rents typically rising about 2 percent a year), and the average entrance fee payment was $402,000 (but could range from $40,000 to over $2 million). The Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities offers a Consumer Guide to Life Plan Communities: Quality and Financial Viability to help you make those important financial decisions.

- - Cohousing Communities

Some seniors choose to live in cohousing communities, which are “neighborhoods designed for community interaction and personal privacy.” Cohousing communities bridge the gap between aging in place and living in a big retirement community that is planned and managed by a developer. See The Cohousing Association of the United States’ website for a directory of senior communities or multigenerational communities that include seniors. You can find articles on the cohousing trend under the housing category at the bottom of this page.

- - Coliving/Homesharing

If you are single, you might want to consider if you’d be a good fit for a coliving or homesharing arrangement using the following resources:

HOME-FREE NOMADIC LIVING

Some spirited seniors eschew the idea of being tied down to another permanent home. Instead, they sell their home and use the money that they would have spent on housing to travel the world and live in short-term rentals found on HomeAway or VRBO. Whether this sort of lifestyle would work for you in the long- or short-term will depend on your budget, your flexibility, and your planning. Note that Medicare does not cover health care overseas, so additional health insurance for medical and dental treatment and evacuation to the United States would be prudent.

HOUSING + CARE WEBSITES

Although there are a number of general real estate search engines that you can use to identify properties to buy or rent, the following websites provide search engines or referral services for those age 50+.

After 55

After 55 provides an all-inclusive senior housing and care search platform that includes 55+ age-restricted houses and apartments for sale and for rent, independent living, continuing care retirement communities, assisted living, and nursing homes.

A Place for Mom

A Place for Mom is a senior living referral service in the U.S. and Canada.

Care Compare

Use Medicare’s Care Compare webpage to compare, inter alia, nursing homes, home health care services, hospice care, inpatient rehabilitation facilities, long-term care hospitals, and dialysis facilities.

Caring.com

Caring.com is a website with Senior Living and Senior Care directories as well as content to assist those caring for someone over the age of 50. They have teamed up with U.S. News & World Report to help you Find the Best Assisted Living Near You.

Community Resource Finder

The Alzheimer’s Association and AARP’s Community Resource Finder is a searchable database of dementia and aging-related resources so that individuals and families can find programs and services in a specific location.

Eldercare Locator

The Eldercare Locator is a nationwide public service of the U.S. Administration on Aging that connects older Americans and their caregivers with trustworthy support resources available at the state and community level.

55places.com

55places.com provides searchable information for over 2000 active adult communities in the United States. If you create a free account, their website will let you save the communities that you are interested in a handy list.

myLifeSite

myLifeSite offers online tools and resources to research continuing care retirement communities.

SeniorAdvisor.com

SeniorAdvisor.com provides a directory of senior housing options, home care providers, and senior services across the United States and Canada with verified consumer reviews and ratings. Housing options are identified under the following categories:

Seniorhousingnet

Realtor.com’s Seniorhousingnet identifies properties by zip code in the following categories:

Senior Living

Senior Living provides a search engine to identify available housing in the following categories:

Assisted Living
Memory Care
Nursing Home
Home Care
Independent Living

The Senior List

The Senior List is an independent review website that includes information about:

senior care and housing
medical alert systems
senior discounts

Seniorly

Seniorly is a search platform to find senior living communities under the following categories:

Assisted Living
Independent Living
Board and care homes
Memory care
Continuing care retirement communities (CCRC)
Skilled nursing facilities
Active Adult Communities (55+)

TopRetirements.com

TopRetirements.com provides city reviews, active adult community reviews, as well as a searchable database to narrow down locations by country, state, cost of living, culture, environment, average temperatures, tax burden, and overall rating.

U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Information for Senior Citizens

HUD’s Information for Senior Citizens website provides links to resources that help with staying in your home, finding an apartment, and protecting yourself against housing-related discrimination and scams.

FOOD WEBSITES

The following programs are available to help seniors with their food needs:

The Commodity Supplemental Food Program (CSFP) works to improve the health of low-income persons at least 60 years of age by supplementing their diets with nutritious USDA Foods.
Meals on Wheels America supports more than 5,000 independently-run local programs across the country that are dedicated to addressing senior isolation and hunger.
The Senior Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program designed to provide low-income seniors with access to locally grown fruits, vegetables, honey, and herbs.

HEALTH

See the HOME-DO page, however, for (1) articles on caring for aging family members articles, (2) articles on health, wellness, and self-care, and (3) health-related resources.

OTHER RESOURCES

The National Council on Aging’s BenefitsCheckUp is an online tool that can be used to determine the availability of federal and state programs.
Supplemental Security Income is available for people with limited income and resources who are disabled, blind, or age 65 or older.

RETIREMENT ARTICLES

Every morning, I read retirement-related articles from hundreds of sources and save the very best for our readers under the subcategories below.

Newsletter subscribers receive updates and my notes on the week’s highlights, so subscribe at the bottom of this page if you’d like to be a better-informed retirement planner.

You can browse this collection using the drop-down menu below or do a word search by hitting (1) CTRL+F on your computer, or (2) the three vertical menu dots (AKA the kebab menu) in Chrome to select “Find in page” on your mobile.

RESOURCES FOR DECIDING

RETIREMENT ARTICLES

Planning

Early Retirement

Layoff

Budget

Housing

Down/Rightsizing

Aging in Place

Coliving

Nomadic Living