I Asked ChatGPT How Much the Average Middle-Class Retiree Spends Monthly at Age 75: Here’s What It Said
Written by
Nicholas Morine
Edited by
Amen Oyiboke
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Retirement spending statistics are often valuable to consider, whether one is comparing and contrasting said figures with their budgetary situation as retirees or plotting a comfortable path to enjoy one’s golden years.
ChatGPT is growing in popularity as an artificial intelligence (AI) research tool as well as a personal finance tipster, so it may be valuable to consult its take on exactly how much a middle-class retiree might be expected to spend when they reach age 75. Here’s what it said — though, as always, it’s best to take generative AI data with a pinch of salt.
Using Fed and BLS Data as a Baseline
ChatGPT gestured toward data from the Federal Reserve of St. Louis (FRED) and the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) as its primary sources.
However, on first glance, while the module did cite BLS table 1300 as an accurate source, it did not correctly identify $53,481 as the mean annual expenditure for Americans aged 75 and older (instead providing a much lower figure of $36,673) in 2022 survey data terms.
Once course-corrected, however, ChatGPT provided the following breakdown of expenditures, inflation-adjusted for 2025.
- Housing: $29,145
- Food: $7,249
- Healthcare: $9,694
- Transportation: $5,390
- Entertainment: $2,696
- Cash contributions (donations, gifts, alimony or child support): $3,851
- Apparel and services: $1,219
- Personal insurance: $963
- Miscellaneous: $3,977
That amounts to a projected total of $64,184 in annual expenses for middle-class retirees in this age group in 2025. What the future holds is uncertain, and these figures may be less than concrete, but they do provide a general guideline as to what one can expect reality to look like.
Key Expense Insights for Retirees Age 75 and Older
A few notable pieces of insight that the LLM issued as part of a category breakdown included the fact that housing was, by far, the largest expense — “even in mortgage-free households” — due to property taxes, maintenance, utilities and insurance.
Healthcare did tick upward versus other age groups, logically, but was perhaps less than anticipated due to Medicare coverage.
Cash contributions reflected a strong pattern of generosity and gifting within this age cohort, and transportation remained expensive (including gas, insurance and repairs) even though older Americans reported less driving frequency.
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