Retirement Income Gap Calculator
Add up your expected Social Security, pension, and savings withdrawals, compare it to your expenses, and see how both stack up against what households 65+ actually spend nationally.
The average household 65+ spends $5,120/month ($61,432/year) according to the most recent (2024) BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey — roughly $1,849 on housing, $795 on transportation, $662 on food, $648 on healthcare, and $1,165 on everything else combined. Enter your own expected income and expenses below to see your personal gap or surplus, compared category-by-category against these national figures.
Most retirement planning advice gives you a single "you need $X saved" number without showing where that money actually goes. This calculator does the opposite — it compares your real numbers, income against expenses, and shows exactly which categories are driving any gap, benchmarked against what similar households actually spend.
Your Retirement Income vs. Expenses
Your Monthly Result
Total Income
Total Expenses
Gap / Surplus
Your Expenses vs. the National 65+ Average
| Category | You | National 65+ Avg | Difference |
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The category benchmarks above come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Consumer Expenditure Survey, the most authoritative source on how American households actually spend money, broken out by the age of the household's reference person. For 2024 (the most recent year available), households 65 and older spent $61,432 on average — but that figure moves a lot with age: households 65-74 spent $65,354 on average, while households 75 and older spent $55,834, a meaningful decline as travel, dining out, and other discretionary categories taper off even as healthcare's share of the budget typically rises.
Being above the national average in a category isn't automatically a problem, and being below it isn't automatically good — it depends entirely on your own circumstances, location, and health needs. What the comparison is actually useful for is spotting which category is driving a gap. A housing number well above average in a high-cost area might be unavoidable without moving; a healthcare number far above average might be worth a second look at your Medicare coverage choices; a transportation number that's high relative to a modest income might be the easiest lever to adjust.
If your numbers show a gap, it's not a verdict that retirement isn't possible — it's a starting point for a short list of real levers: claiming Social Security later increases the benefit permanently, a larger planned withdrawal from savings needs to be checked against your Required Minimum Distribution rules rather than assumed freely available, and several categories have dedicated assistance programs worth checking directly rather than just absorbing the cost.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does the average household 65+ actually spend per year?
$61,432 per year ($5,120/month) as of the 2024 Consumer Expenditure Survey (Bureau of Labor Statistics), the most recent year available. That breaks down to roughly $22,193 on housing, $9,538 on transportation, $7,940 on food, $7,779 on healthcare, and about $13,982 on everything else (entertainment, insurance, apparel, and other categories combined).
Does retirement spending stay the same as you age?
No. BLS data shows households aged 65-74 spend more on average ($65,354/year) than households 75 and older ($55,834/year) — overall spending tends to decline with age even as healthcare's share of the budget rises, as travel, dining out, and other discretionary spending fall off.
What counts as retirement income for this calculator?
Social Security benefits, pension or annuity payments, planned withdrawals from retirement accounts (401(k), IRA, etc.), and any other regular income like part-time work or rental income. Enter monthly amounts for each that applies to you.
What should I do if this shows a gap?
A gap doesn't mean retirement isn't possible — it means one or more levers need adjusting: claiming Social Security later, withdrawing more from savings (checking your RMD requirements first), reducing a specific expense category, or checking whether you qualify for assistance programs in the categories driving the gap, like property tax relief or utility assistance.
National benchmark figures are from the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey, 2024 (most recent published data), households with a reference person age 65+. These are averages, not targets or requirements — your actual costs depend heavily on your location, health, and lifestyle. This calculator doesn't account for taxes on withdrawals, inflation over time, or one-time expenses. It's a planning starting point, not a substitute for a full retirement income plan from a financial professional.