Here's How Your Spending Will Change Throughout Retirement (The Retirement Smile)

Feeling like “flat” retirement spending plans don’t match real life? You’re not imagining it. Spending typically follows a retirement smile: higher in the early “go-go” years, lower in the “slow-go” years, then rising again later with healthcare needs. In this episode, Ari Taublieb, CFP®, shows how acknowledging that curve can unlock more life early on—without losing long-term security.

Using illustrative scenarios (not recommendations), see how a $2,000,000 portfolio might support higher spending in active years (e.g., ~$110k), step down mid-retirement (e.g., ~$85k), and adjust later (e.g., ~$95k–$105k). A $1,000,000 portfolio might follow a similar pattern (e.g., ~$50k → ~$35k → ~$45k–$50k). The point isn’t precision, it’s aligning your plan with how people actually live.

You’ll learn how to frame spending guardrails, set review checkpoints, and coordinate income sources so your plan adapts as health, markets, and goals change. Ready to stress-test your numbers against reality and retire with more confidence?

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Advisory services are offered through Root Financial Partners, LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. This content is intended for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered personalized investment, tax, or legal advice. Viewing this content does not create an advisory relationship. We do not provide tax preparation or legal services. Always consult an investment, tax or legal professional regarding your specific situation.

The strategies, case studies, and examples discussed may not be suitable for everyone. They are hypothetical and for illustrative and educational purposes only. They do not reflect actual client results and are not guarantees of future performance. All investments involve risk, including the potential loss of principal.

Comments reflect the views of individual users and do not necessarily represent the views of Root Financial. They are not verified, may not be accurate, and should not be considered testimonials or endorsements

Participation in the Retirement Planning Academy or Early Retirement Academy does not create an advisory relationship with Root Financial. These programs are educational in nature and are not a substitute for personalized financial advice. Advisory services are offered only under a written agreement with Root Financial.

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Ari Taublieb, CFP ®, MBA is the Chief Growth Officer of Root Financial Partners and a Fiduciary Financial Planner specializing in helping clients retire early with confidence.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The biggest myth in early retirement planning is
that you're going to spend thesame amount every single year,
and that's what most people relyon when they use a software,
even the one that I talk about.
They'll go ahead and answer afew questions such as when do
you want to retire and how muchdo you want to spend?
So if you say you want toretire at 60 and you want to
spend 8,000 a month inretirement, it's a good starting
spot, but it's not accurate,and the reason for that is

(00:29):
you're not going to probablyspend 8,000 a month every year.
When you retire early, you'reprobably going to want to spend
more than you project becauseyou have your energy and your
health, and I want you to beable to spend more because these
are the years you should enjoyit.
Then what happens is peoplegenerally spend a little bit
less in their mid seventies,late seventies, early eighties.
Then it starts to come up when,all of a sudden, there's more
medical expenses or there'sgiving they want to do so
there's a name for this it'scalled the retirement smile.

(00:49):
Where you retire, you spendmore with your energy and health
.
That decreases over time andthen comes back up again.
I'm going to talk about theretirement smile and give you an
example, because this is goingto change the way you think
about spending throughoutretirement.
Now you think about spendingthroughout retirement Now.

(01:22):
My name is Ari Taublieb.
I'm the Chief Growth Officerhere at Root, host of this
podcast, the Early RetirementPodcast, and I am a CFP, a
Certified Financial Planner, andthat is not why you should
listen to this podcast or anyepisode I put out.
How many doctors would younever let touch your body?
Probably a lot of them.
I love doctors because they putmy hip together so I can keep

(01:42):
playing soccer, and I playsoccer about four or five days a
week and I love doing it.
In the same way, I love makingthese episodes for you guys.
So, yes, there's value tophysicians obviously goes
without being said, but there'splenty that I would not want to
operate on me.
Same thing in the financialworld.
There's plenty of advisors thatI would not let manage a dime
of my money.
There's others that I trustdeeply.

(02:04):
So I tell you this because Ihope you only listen if my style
resonates, and it's not foreveryone.
I obviously I make a lot ofjokes, I give examples, I go in
tangents.
It's just how I do this.
I always want your feedbackbecause this is what helps me
make the best show possible.
So thank you in advance.
If you do have any feedback onthe content, on my style,
delivery, whatever it may be,this is your show.

(02:25):
I just get to make it so.
With that being said, let's gothrough an example.
So there is a thing literallycalled the retirement smile, and
the retirement smile it'sbroken down into three phases.
So the first phase is what'scalled the go-go years, so
that's ages generally 60 to 70.
Assuming you retire at 60, youcould use the same framework

(02:46):
here if you retire at 50.
But this is when you have yourenergy and your health.
You're newly retired, you'vegot your energy.
You want to travel, maybe goout more, do maybe a remodel.
You're just trying to enjoylife.
So spending will often increasecompared to, obviously, a
pre-retirement, because why youhave the time?
That's the biggest shift here.
From there we're going towhat's called the slow go years,

(03:07):
that's mid-retirement, 70 to 80, 85.
That's where travel slows down,energy decreases and you're
less likely to spend on what wecall the extras in retirement.
Now a disclaimer here I haveclients that share, ari.
I know this retirement smileand you like it and you talk
about it, but I just think we'regoing to replace the spending
with other stuff, meaning 60 to70, we're going to travel a ton

(03:30):
and enjoy it or spend more onfamily, and then 70 to 80,
that's when we're honestly justgoing to replace that with
helping a kid with a downpayment.
So we're worried that if youtake that out of our plan we're
not going to do other things.
You can make your plan exactlyas you see it In fact you should
.
But this is the generalframework and I'm going over it
intentionally because if you doresonate with the episode today

(03:52):
and go, wow, that does seem morelike me, I'm probably going to
go more in alignment with thepath of this retirement smile.
You might be able to retireearlier or spend more, and I
don't want you to be mad at melater in life when you go out
why didn't I do some otherthings?
So, going back to thismid-retirement slow-go years,
that's where healthcare costsstart creeping in, but your

(04:14):
total discretionary spendingthat will decrease and then this
is the lowest spending phase ofretirement.
This is the bottom of thatretirement spending smile.
So late retirement is what wecall your no-go years, that's
ages 80 to 90.
Now root, which is where I workas the chief growth officer.
We didn't invent this.
Okay, this is just a frameworkthat is often discussed in

(04:36):
retirement planning, so we wantto make sure that you understand
it and hear it.
Now, this is age 80 to 90, yourno-go years, where it's
discretionary spending, so maybeextra on travel tends to be
very low because there'shealthcare and long-term care
costs that can spike up.
So what it creates a spendingrise at the end.
Now, obviously that depends.

(04:56):
Some people pass away veryquickly.
Some people it's drawn out butthink assisted living, in-home
care, you don't want to travelso much that you can't afford
these things.
So I'm going to give you anexample.
If you have a million dollars,let's say, or if you want to
spend $100,000 a year and thoseare two very different numbers
because if you have a milliondollars and you want to spend a

(05:16):
hundred thousand, yeah, that'sprobably too much.
You're looking at a 10%withdrawal rate there and that
is a sure way to run out ofmoney.
But many of you want to retireand you have a million dollars
and you're like, well, I don'twant to spend a hundred thousand
a year.
So I'm going to give you twoexamples.
That hopefully helps.
So let's pretend you have $2million and you want to take out
, let's just say, a hundredthousand dollars a year.

(05:37):
Okay, so that's a 5% withdrawalrate.
Now, first thing is you want toask yourself if I take out a
hundred thousand, how much am Igoing to net?
Is it all from a Roth IRA?
Are you doing what's called taxgain harvesting, where you pay
0% taxes on brokerage accountmoney, or superheroes as I call
it?
Let's just keep it simple andassume you're not getting to do

(05:57):
those things, because mostpeople that come to me it's not
all in a Roth IRA, it's in a401k or IRA.
So if that's you and you'repulling from that account and
you're pulling 100,000, maybeyou're paying 10% in taxes and
you're actually netting $90,000.
Well, if that's you, you want tomake sure that you have money
for the rest of your life, andyou want to make sure that you
have money for the rest of yourlife and you want to make sure
you have a sustainablewithdrawal rate.

(06:18):
So if you're in that range of5% or so if you see the other
videos I talk about that thatwould be sustainable, assuming
you follow the right path.
Well, you could, theoretically,if you aligned yourself with
the retirement spending.
Smile, instead of withdrawing ahundred thousand, you might
want to withdraw something like$110,000 a year.
Now you'd go wait a second.
That withdrawal rate would putme north of 5%, yes, it would.

(06:40):
But that's okay if, one, you'rewilling to switch your income
based off how markets areperforming and, two, if you
recognize and agree to spendingless in the future.
So, age 60 to 70, your go-goyears.
Maybe you're taking $110,000 ayear.
But age 70 to 80, while yourportfolio has hopefully grown,
now at this point maybe you'retaking $85,000 a year, maybe it

(07:02):
hasn't grown to the degree thatyou expect and your go-go years
is cut from 10 years to eightyears.
Once again, this is not aperfect science, it's just a
framework.
And then age 80 to 90, maybeyou're back up to $95,000 to
$105,000 a year.
Now it really depends on yourlegacy goals.
If you want to die with zero,we should certainly not do what
I just said, because you'llprobably, assuming a safe

(07:24):
withdrawal rate of 5%, you mightpass away with a few million
bucks, which might not be yourgoal at all.
Or maybe it is your goalbecause you have two children,
you want to leave this to.
So that's if you want to spend$100,000 a year.
If we want to say, retire todayand you have a million dollar
portfolio and you want to go,okay, what would an average
retiree spend?
What could I actually do?

(07:45):
Well, if you don't have socialsecurity yet which you wouldn't
if you retired at 60 and you hada million dollars if we're
going to assume the 4% rulemaybe two and a half percent
inflation we have to make someassumptions here, which, by the
way, you could play around withthese in the software that I
talk about, you can see 40,000 ayear would be the starting spot
.
So for some of you, you're like, honestly, my home's paid off

(08:06):
40,000 a year.
That allows me to do what Iwant to do.
But most of you that reach outto me, you'd like to spend
closer to 80 to $120,000 a year.
So you could either keepworking or you could say you
know what I'm going to work parttime, or I'm willing to just
spend less because I want to bedone working.
So you could make that decisionyourself, but pretend you are
the person that goes look, Ihave a million bucks and I've

(08:26):
just had it.
I want to be done with work.
If that's you, whether you havea million, two, 10, or a hundred
million, the logic's the sameWith the retirement smile, with
the go-go years.
If you pull 50,000 a year, sothat's more than 40,000.
I just increased yourwithdrawal rate for four to 5%,
and I'm an advisor.
I would do this because I knowmy client might want to spend

(08:47):
more, travel more, enjoy more,but I would want them to
understand.
Maybe from 70 to 80, instead ofa 4% withdrawal rate, we might
be at three and a half, aka35,000 a year, and then it might
spike back up again to about 45to 50,000 a year.
So instead of taking that40,000 and going 40 every single
year, you're actually goingwider and you're saying, oh,

(09:08):
wait a second, why don't I spendmore when I have my energy and
health?
And maybe the one thing you tookfrom this is wow.
When I go back to the softwareand I put 8,000 a month in, I
realized that's probably notaccurate.
I want to put some extra bufferfor the beginning.
Maybe that's all you take Great.
Maybe that's all you take Great.
Maybe you go wow.
Now that I think about it.
I've seen my parents and that'sexactly what they did.
They spent a good amount, butnow they have too much and

(09:30):
they're regretting it.
So take from what I said thelogic and apply it to what
you've seen what coworkersyou've seen what parents, you've
seen friends and go okay, whatdo I want my retirement to look
like?
Now, if you want help inretirement so you don't have to
be spending your time doing allof these adjustments, that's
what we do.
This is our work.
We do the tax planning, theestate planning, the healthcare,

(09:51):
the insurance, the investments,and we love it.
So I encourage you to reach outto Root Financial if you're
seeking guidance.
That's it for this episode.
See you guys next time.
Thank you all, as always, forlistening to the Early
Retirement Podcast.
I love getting to host theseshows and make different content
for you guys every single week.
I've not missed a single weekin years, and that is because I

(10:11):
love getting to do this.
Now, please be smart about this.
Before you actually execute anystrategy that you see me talk
about or hear me talk about,should I say Please talk to your
financial advisor, your taxpreparer, your estate attorney.
Please be smart about this.
None of this should beconstrued as financial advice.
This is for fun, educational,informational purposes only.

(10:32):
Once again, just quickdisclaimer here.
Guys, please be smart aboutthis.
Appreciate you listening, asalways, and you can, of course,
submit a question on my website,earlyretirementpodcastcom, if
you, of course, want me toaddress a specific case study or
topic.
I will not promise I can get toit, but I respond to every
single person and if I find itwill be helpful for a lot of

(10:53):
people, I will absolutely makean episode on it, at the very
least give you some insight.
That's it, thanks, guys.