When many people think of retirement costs, they envision losing income and budgeting more tightly. But the real story goes deeper. There are three categories of costs that often get overlooked, especially by those five to ten years out from retirement. Ignoring them doesn’t make them disappear. It just makes them harder to handle later.
Cost #1: Healthcare and Longevity
Healthcare remains one of the largest unknowns. According to Fidelity’s 2025 estimate, a 65-year-old retiring today could expect to spend around $172,500 on healthcare and medical expenses throughout retirement.
Another studyfound that nearly two-thirds of pre-retired investors underestimate their healthcare costs.
When you’re five to ten years from retirement, you still have time to build a strategy: review expected insurance and Medicare options, plan for long-term care, and include your adult children in discussions about what happens if health needs change.
Cost #2: Relocation, Family Support & Lifestyle Shifts
Many pre-retirees plan for travel, second homes, or moving closer to family. These often bring hidden expenses: property taxes in a second home, duplicate utilities, or supporting grown children or grandchildren in ways you hadn’t budgeted.
Changing your location or lifestyle often changes your expenses. Before you decide to move or add a vacation-home plan, build a scenario that maps the actual cost, and talk to your adult children about how this step affects family time, legacy, and responsibilities.
Cost #3: Keeping Documents & Legal Affairs Current
It might not feel dramatic but reviewing, updating, and communicating legal and estate documents is a cost too. Documents become outdated. Beneficiaries change. Roles shift.
If your adult children don’t know who holds power of attorney, or where a will is, your plan doesn’t fail because of the big stuff, it fails because of the details. Families who treat their documentation like a project tend to feel less burdened.
Using your binder or the Beneficiaries Handbook + Checklistmakes that task simple and it’s one of the most meaningful things you can do to prevent issues later.
Action Steps You Can Take Now
- Scan or review your current healthcare/insurance plan and estimate what you might spend in the first 10 years of retirement.
- List any major lifestyle changes you’re considering (move, second home, family support) and write a rough cost estimate for each.
- Pick one legal/estate document to review this month (beneficiaries, power of attorney, will).
- Set up a 30-minute meeting with your adult children. Use these discussion points and share one key decision, one document location, and one role they may play.
Conclusion
Costs that don’t show up in spreadsheets often land in surprise checks or unplanned decisions later. But if you’re five to ten years from retirement, you’ve still got time to handle them.
By acknowledging healthcare and longevity, lifestyle shifts, and the importance of updated documents, you give yourself and your family the clarity to move forward with confidence, not because everything is perfect, but because everything is aligned.
It’s not about avoiding cost, it’s about planning for it.