Green Retirement Blog

The cost of health care in retirement is, without a doubt one of the largest concerns, for people planning their retirements. Fidelity Investments released the results of their annual study, and determined that a couple retiring at the age of 65, would require $225,000 in retirement savings to cover the cost of health care. A separate study conducted by Boston College’s, Center for Retirement Research found, that a couple would need $206,000. Either way - that’s a lot of money. You can read the full article here.

This prompted me to conduct, a study of retirement health care costs, using the Green Retirement Planning method. The result? A couple retiring at the the age of 65 would require $101,000 in retirement savings to pay for their health care costs.  That is less than half the amount of either study.  An individual would only need $50,000 in retirement savings. I calculated this amount by estimating that a couple, even with medi-care, would incur $200 each in monthly medical expenses. This includes membership in an HMO, deductibles, prescriptions.

Also, CNN Money has a good article, with advice on finding affordable health care, that is very worth reading if you are considering early retirement.If your retirement health care costs, are either higher or lower, you can find out how much retirement savings you will need by using our Free Retirement Calculator. In any case, the conclusion seems to be, that even though health care costs in retirement require significant savings, they are not as high as you may imagine.

Learn more about Green Retirement Planning - And find out how you can save your retirement and the planet!