A. This Walls Street Journal article has an interesting way to estimate how much you will need during retirement time - by breaking up spending into 7 core categories:
- Basic Needs (housing / utilities / healthcare)
- Dining (eating in and eating out)
- Recharge (salons, country clubs, golf memberships, gyms, etc.)
- Travel (both local and far)
- Digital Services (cable, internet, smartphones, etc.)
- Entertainment (events, books, museums, parks, etc.)
- Shopping (clothing, electronics, home goods, gifts, etc.)
This approach could lead to estimated spending in retirement much higher than estimates made based on pre-retirement lifestyle spending.