What a Wealthy Retiree’s Monthly Budget Looks Like at Age 76
Written by
Jennifer Taylor
Edited by
Zuri Anderson
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Retirement lifestyles are different for everyone. Some retirees are barely able to make ends meet, while others have the money to live their golden years in leisure.
By age 70, the average person has a 401(k) balance of $250,000, according to Fidelity. Wealthy retirees likely have multiples of that saved, as it takes a lot of money to fund a comfortable retirement in today’s economy.
No two retirees have the same budget, but members of the upper class may have many line items in common. Keep reading to get an idea of what a 76-year-old wealthy retiree’s budget might look like.
Putting a Number on Wealth
The definition of wealth is different for everyone, and may also shift during different life stages, said Kevin C. Feig, certified financial planner (CFP) and founder of Walk You To Wealth.
“Personally speaking, I define wealth as choice,” he said. “The more choices you have, the wealthier you are.”
At age 76, he said this could be anything from choosing to buy your grandchildren a lower-cost Christmas gift to opting to fly first-class to visit them for the holiday.
“Generally speaking, I’ve found with my older clients that it’s more about human connections and experiences than ‘more stuff,'” he said. “They tend to spend the bulk of their money on leisure activities with family and friends, gifting and healthcare — both preventative and non-preventative.”
Jonathan Vance, CFP, enrolled agent (EA) and financial planner at Vance Financial Planning agreed that wealth can’t be measured by a fixed number.
“Most of the retiree clients that I’ve worked with have entered retirement with total financial assets — think IRAs, Roth IRAs, brokerage accounts, cash, etc. — ranging from a few hundred thousand to a few million dollars,” he said. “Whereas the concept of ‘a few million dollars’ seems like a lot, it’s important to remember that these retirees are depending on the dollars in these accounts to at least partially cover living expenses for 20 to 30-plus years.”
In this case, he said the term wealth is better defined as the amount of confidence a retiree has in meeting their spending needs.
“Ironically, those with larger portfolios are often more wired for frugality,” he said. “The high savings rate that built their nest egg is a hard habit to break, often making it more behaviorally difficult to spend more once they’re retired.”
Estimating a Wealth Retiree’s Monthly Budget
In 2024, living expenses for the average retiree totaled $59,616, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. However, retirees with money aren’t necessarily living an average lifestyle.
A monthly budget is the single-most important number in retirement planning, Vance said.
In his region of Southwest Missouri — which he noted has a low cost of living — approximately 80% of his clients have fallen between $6,000 to $12,000 per month, net after taxes, he said.
“This range represents the total lifestyle spend or the amount that hits their checking account from all sources — Social Security, pension, portfolio distributions, etc.,” he said.
When it comes to what wealthy retirees are spending their money on, it’s probably not housing. By their mid-70s, Vance said most of his clients have paid off their homes.
In this case, he said their spending is typically split into three broad categories — non-discretionary (approximately 50%), discretionary (around 35%) and giving — to family and/or charitable donations – (roughly 15%).
For example, in early retirement clients’ monthly budget might be 50% non-discretionary spending, 40% discretionary spending and 10% giving, he said. However, this may shift to 50% non-discretionary spending, 25% discretionary spending and 10% giving by their 90s.
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