Under-budgeting for retirement
People ages 55 to 70 tend to underestimate how long they’re going to live, according to 2025 research published by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College. That can lead them to miscalculate how much they need to save for retirement.
Don’t make that mistake. Create a financial plan that assumes you’re going to live to 100, says Melissa George, a fee-based financial adviser based in Atlanta. You’ll be less likely to exhaust your savings, and to put your kids in the position of taking financial responsibility for you.
“When I’m doing a retirement income plan, my first [step] is to make sure they don’t outlive their money,” George says.
In particular, consider how you’re going to pay for out-of-pocket health care costs as you age. A healthy 65-year-old man who retired in 2025 and has a Medicare Advantage plan will spend an estimated $128,000 on health care expenses during retirement, on average, while a healthy woman in the same situation will spend approximately $148,000, according to research firm Milliman.
Be diligent about updating beneficiaries for your insurance policies and retirement accounts. “You can put whatever you want down in the will, but if a beneficiary is listed someplace else, that’s who the money goes to,” George says. Many people “never update their beneficiaries after a major life event,” she says.
Playing favorites with inheritance
Your estate plan should serve as a road map for your heirs, McPherson says, not a cudgel to change their behavior or settle scores. Unless you want the reading of your will to turn into a family soap opera, consider the consequences of cutting one of your kids out.
Still, says it’s OK to vary your bequests rather than dividing your assets equally among your kids, George says: “You have different children, they have different personalities, different desires, different wants.”
For example, one child might want to inherit your house, while the other might prefer to inherit cash. This is another reason to openly discuss your will with your kids. Ask them what they want to inherit and consider their requests in setting your estate plan. “I think that helps for a child to really feel like, You listened to me, you heard me, this is the thing I wanted,” George says.