A wild new retirement strategy: Spend less in retirement

[r3dt4rget]

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/retirement/what-empty-nesters-dont-know-about-saving-for-retirement/ar-BBiCq9a

But there's another way empty nesters' spending might change. This alternative approach assumes, among other things, that prudent parents save a lot more when kids move out and household expenses go down, and that they'll spend less in old age. If parents save a lot with the kids gone and spend less as they approach their 80s, it improves the retirement forecast considerably, because if they're spending less, they need less in savings.

For all the research on retirement finances, academics don't really know which of these models is accurate or whether there's a third (or a fourth) option that's better yet.

Wow. Is the mainstream starting to figure out that less spending = less savings required? How can anyone possible live on less in retirement than they did while raising children!?!?

[zephyr911]

Well, it turns out some people quit their jobs and use all that free time for cruises and first-class tickets to bucket-list destinations they never had time to visit. Retirement planners are starting to tell them about that possibility, which has pros (more realistic expectations, possibly) and cons (inflates people's concept of the minimum cost of retirement).