Elder Intro Lifestage Considerations 03 Spending

Looking at the next pillar of financial literacy, which is spending, in this phase of life it is expected that spending will reduce. This may not be true for everybody. It is expected that considerations for

* Mortgage costs

* Children's education 

* Cost of living associated with going to work and dressing for work will reduce.

* Also the need for expensive holidays and so on may lessen, although this might not be a quick change.

Spending in households should typically decrease. However there may be a burst of spending around retirement time. A lot of people take the opportunity to refurbish or redesign the houses and look towards long-term heating security and things like that. That might actually cost money in the short to medium term but provide a more secure or stable living environment in the longer term. 

It's worth noting that this process might not be as straightforward for everybody. The reality now is that adult children are often remaining living at home, eating from the family pot. It's quite possible that parents have needed to refinance their own home and may be carrying mortgage debt into retirement so this is something that should be borne in mind for spending, which might mean that spending costs don't really reduce. There may be supports provided to adult children regardless of where they're living, beyond the expected time and into the parent's retirement. This is also a consideration.

If there's been separation or divorce somewhere along the way, there's likely been a re-mortgage so it may actually turn out that this is a period of time which has got increased rather than reduced spend. Everybody's circumstances are unique. However the general pattern would be of reduced spending at this time of life.