Blue Water Capital Management
Blue Water Capital Management

  (919) 589-2528

Specializing in retirement planning and personalized investment management.

Reduce Retirement Expenses

Reduce Expenses

One of the biggest ways to improve your odds of a successful retirement is to reduce your expenses.  The less you spend, the less you need to withdrawal from your portfolio.  Over time, these reductions can have a big impact on the portfolio.

A retired 65-year old couple with a $1,000,000 portfolio invested in a 55% stock portfolio and taking withdrawals of $4,500/month would have about a 67% chance of not running out of money within 25 years.

If the same couple reduced their draw to $4,250/month, their chance of success increases to about 78%.  Spending $250/month less is only a reduction of 5.6% of expenses.

Ideas for reducing expenses:

  • Downsize your house
  • Pay off debt or your mortgage
  • Refinance debt / mortgage
  • Drive your car a little longer, or buy a slightly less expensive car
  • Dine out 1-2 times less a month
  • Stay in a slightly less expensive hotel on vacation trips
  • Spend less on gifts, donations

 

You could also track your expenses over several months and see if there are any areas that could be reduced.  The point is that any reduction in expenses will improve your chance of success.