Will our money last?

[Thomas Merron]

I am 84, my wife is 72. In order for Firecalc to take care of my death I have entered a withdrawl change starting in '27 to cover reductions in SS etc and another to cover a reduction in living costs. Is this the correct way to handle changes in income and withdrawals?

 

[Vacation4us]

Since no one has responded, I think you need to be more clear on your question. I think your attempting to use Firecalc to see if your wife will have enough money once you are gone. Is this correct? More details and specific questions might help. Just an FYI living costs don't go down all that much when 1 spouse dies.

 

[Souschef]

Since no one has responded, I think you need to be more clear on your question. I think your attempting to use Firecalc to see if your wife will have enough money once you are gone. Is this correct? More details and specific questions might help. Just an FYI living costs don't go down all that much when 1 spouse dies.

The worst thing is that income goes down. Right now, my SS and pension cover 60% of our income. If I go first, she will have to live on 40% to 45 % of our income.
Food medical and car expenses will go down, but rent, insurance and some other fixed expenses will not.

 

[ERD50]

Also, taxes may go up significantly (Single brackets versus MFJ). Could be worth running some pro-forma tax calculations on surviving spouse scenario. I think OP is smart to take a look at this, especially if SS is a large part of needed income.

-ERD50

 

[USGrant1962]

Your basic approach is fine - upon your passing survivor SS income will likely be lower and expenses may go down (except taxes). In the "Other Income/Spending" tab in FIRECalc you can enter the SS reduction as "Off Chart Spending" and the spending reduction as "Pension Income (or off chart spending reduction)". Both would be inflation adjusted. You could also net them out and enter it, plus or minus, on one line.

However, I would not pick a date.

To be conservative in planning, I would assume the event happens this year. If that scenario works in FIRECalc you are good to go, so to speak. If you run that scenario and there are high failures then you might want to make some adjustments.

 

[Bir48die]

+1 with the two previous posters. Just make your changes assuming it's starting this year. Agree that taxes will go up but only after three years as you get both exemptions for year you would pass and two following as "widower".