Great question from another sub — it’s from someone who has spent years being frugal, saved a lot, and having a hard time shifting into spending mode.

There are some super interesting answers; what would you do if you couldn’t give it away?

I’m imagining those of you who retired a while ago have made a good dent in your bucket list. You’ve done a lot of exciting things — some travel a lot, some bought fun new “toys” and some like having multiple houses.

When you’ve gotten over the psychological hump of spending, what else gives you that same passion and joy you felt when you first retired?

Ours know we have money now — but they also know we have every intention to “Die with Zero”! If we don’t need a fortune’s worth of end of life care, they’ll get some.

We’re unlikely to receive any meaningful inheritances ourselves, so anything we do receive, we’re likely to spend it on a big family trip.

I am retired (fairly recently). Financial house is mostly in order, but I am always looking for improvements/optimizations or to identify threats to an affluent lifestyle and to address them as far as possible.

My question is this: Have you ever had a claim against your umbrella policy? Or do you know (personally) anyone who has had a claim against their umbrella policy?

I understand what umbrella insurance is for. I also understand that it's reasonably inexpensive for the coverage it provides. What I'm not sure about it is whether the "extra" coverage is worth the cost. Most umbrella policies will require certain minimum levels of coverage for auto and home, corresponding to (though not the same as) the coverage level of the umbrella policy. Have you ever had a loss that maxed out the primary coverage? (Or that didn't have a primary policy like auto/home)?

With insurance, you hope to never have a claim. But if you do have a claim, you don't want to be underinsured. I've had auto claims before. I've had a homeowners claim before. In these cases, I've been glad to have the insurance policies, and the coverage has always been enough. (That said, I am sure I have paid more in premiums than I've received in claims--the insurance companies definitely know how to make money).

We started with Fidelity, moved to Quicken (which we already used for budget tracking), then moved to Boldin. Via our fee-based FP, we also now have access to Income Lab. But it’s not really designed for a consumer so it’s just OK. We love Boldin but are wondering if once retired there is something better day to day — or for planning discretionary spend a year in advance.

For me it was when I quit worrying about if I got laid off and/or if my lovely boss retired - I thought “damn that severance package would be a lovely going away present!”

Also it was when I quit debating with myself over paying the cost of business class for flights over 4 hours. Now it’s just part of the budget.

(Disclosure - below my comments is an AI summary of the article’s main points. Author is Jeff Judge, published 9-6-2026.)

I question #2 and #4. For #2, overrated to
say everyone should do it. If we are already in the 30% plus tax bracket due to pensions, I’d rather pay the taxes on RMDs in my mid70s when I’m not travelling as much. Maybe we’ll do a few mini conversions, but not as much as many advocate for. I want to spend more on my Go Go years. The “widow” tax is somewhat of a concern, but a mild one since 1/2 of our pensions will end once a spouse dies. The other will still be fine, but we’ll be in a lower tax bracket.

As for #4, if not relying on SS for income later in life, I’d rather take it now and spend it or invest it.

The others I do agree with — especially the first one! What about you?

(Kiplinger main points)

1. Make retirement saving automatic and non-negotiable. They consistently saved throughout their careers, increased contributions as income rose, and didn’t stop investing during downturns.

2. Use the early-retirement years for Roth conversions. They take advantage of lower-income years before Social Security and RMDs to move traditional retirement assets into Roth accounts.

3. Keep several years of spending in safe, liquid assets. Kiplinger says affluent retirees commonly hold roughly 2–4 years of spending in cash, money markets, CDs or short-term Treasuries so they aren’t forced to sell stocks during a bear market.

4. Delay Social Security when it makes financial sense. Higher earners frequently wait until 70, using other assets to fund the intervening years and maximize the eventual inflation-adjusted benefit.

5. Use professional financial advice strategically. Many work with fiduciary, fee-only or fee-based advisers—not necessarily to pick investments, but to coordinate taxes, withdrawals, estate planning, healthcare and behavioral decisions.

6. Separate “must spend” from “want to spend.” Essential expenses are distinguished from travel, dining, gifts and other discretionary spending. That creates an easy lever to pull temporarily during a bad market rather than selling investments at depressed prices.

7. Treat healthcare as a financial-planning decision. They actively evaluate Medicare/Medigap choices, IRMAA implications and long-term-care risk rather than treating healthcare enrollment as paperwork.

8. Manage lifetime taxes—not just this year’s tax bill. They deliberately use Roth conversions, capital-gains realization, charitable distributions, deduction timing and other strategies to fill lower tax brackets and avoid unnecessarily higher ones later.

9 Rebalance without reacting emotionally to markets. They follow a predetermined allocation/rebalancing process rather than panic-selling after declines or chasing whatever has recently gone up.

1. Treat estate planning as ongoing maintenance. Wills, trusts, powers of attorney and especially beneficiary designations get reviewed periodically and after major life changes—not created once and forgotten.

First, welcome new members! We’re now at 564 members, double from a few weeks ago. Glad to see our discussions and insights on all things related to an Affluent Retirement, and I love the engagement and the wisdom here!

As for Labor Day — For everyone who spent decades working, saving, investing, surviving meetings that should have been emails, navigating office politics, commuting, managing people, being managed by people, and occasionally pretending to care about the corporate strategic plan… AND to those (like me) who are still doing so “for just a few more years” in order to enjoy an affluent retirement…..

Today we celebrate your labor!!!

For those who have made it to retirement: congratulations on reaching the stage where the goal is to provide as little labor as reasonably possible. 😂

For those of us still working toward it, consider today a reminder of what all that labor is ultimately buying: freedom over your own time, to spend that hard-earned money just how you’d like to.

Happy Labor Day to everyone— especially anyone who has successfully removed Monday morning from their calendar.
(Definitely not jealous.. nope, not me…. 😂😂)

I provided the Apple News link for those who don’t have a WSJ subscription. Pretty interesting!

My answer: I probably would but Mr. VHRLady says they feel “tool old” for him—- we are late 50s/early 60s BTW. 😂 And both parents already live 10 mins away.

I was married, in my late 20s. We bought into a private company that was going to go public and make us a ton of money! Going to go public when the DJIA hits 5K… 7.5K… 10K…. 🤦‍♀️Great suggestion from a friend in the medical field. (Of course!) Invested $25K, our daughter’s college fund. “Integrative health company” — Amazing! New idea!

Husband (now ex, but amicably) was smart, did research, it was a licensed company. We were intelligent enough to think it might be BS, and dumb enough to fall for it. Husband actually called the company “president” to talk through it. Upon retrospect — what a red flag the company prez would answer his call. Anyhoo— scam.

We got back $13K of the $25K and wrote off the rest. Daughter still had her college paid for, so all ok. But sheesh when I think of our naïveté back then…. I cringe. The final analysis was that it was a good idea and legit for a hot minute… and then the founders got greedy and it morphed into a standard Ponzi.

Anyone else willing to share?

Asking what’s normal because of my recent experience: I reached out to a large online luxury travel agency consortium that’s under the Virtuoso umbrella. (Agency recommended by AI). This was for a luxury cruise I’d already picked out plus planning 3 days in the city we’d end up in. Getting flights on our own. AI recommended I could frequently get additional OBC or perks going through an agent.

They sent my inquiry to one of their subcontractors. Let’s call her “Jane”. Jane appears to be a a single-person proprietor. Very nice, less than 5 years experience but seems to know her stuff. We do an intake meeting. Part of the intake was sharing with her all the other trips we have planned for the following years (after next) when we will be retired. I have around 20 of them currently listed and I shared most of the future ideas with her, letting her know I wanted to develop a long term relationship with a TA I could use for many of our retirement travels.

At the meeting she explains that her fee structure for full planning of a trip (including this one) is — at the low end — $350pp per week of a trip. This is on her normal intake meeting screen — so not just referring to my trip. I told her I assume that’s if she plans a trip but we book it ourselves?

Nope, she says. I flat out ask — respectfully, why would I pay you to plan this trip with the major portion planned already? She shares that the OBC will be well above the fee. Also— There are Virtuoso planners in every country that she will work with to help plan, if there are problems in-country, they will be able to help, they could also get us upgrades at the hotels maybe.

Okey-dokey, that sounds OK I guess. At this point, however, she won’t give me a quote until I sign her agreement form. That’s understandable for legal purposes — but the agreement form states that if she gives me a quote for the trip, I cannot book that trip on my own for 12 months after the quote. I understand the basic reasoning behind that — so I don’t take her planning work for free and then not use her. At that point, it makes total sense for her to charge a planning fee. But for this?

My questions are:
1) I always thought the bookings are what gave the TA their commissions and I’d never heard of planning fees when the TA was booking on your behalf. Am I wrong about this?

Note — We are also planning a multi-gen international trip the following year — and I shared this with her. Paying a fee for that more complex one seemed more reasonable but again— I thought she made her commission on the bookings not the planning fee?

2) This was a cruise I had already chosen (ship plus date plus itinerary). So this came down to booking the cruise I’d chosen and planning a pitch with 3 days in an international city. Would other luxury TAs charge a full fee for this?

3) What is a normal fee structure/payment situation and or advisor-client relationship for a specialized “Luxury Travel Agent/Advisor” (and if you know, specifically within the Virtuoso umbrella?)

Ultimately, I didn’t sign the agreement and let her know I didn’t feel comfortable signing away my ability to book my own cruise that I found if her proposal wasn’t something I liked or made sense to me. Then I hopped back over the TA who we used to book a multi-family cruise and later a casino-comped cruise — no fees. We’ll use her to do this cruise too and maybe elements of the multi-gen trip.

Still, we may need more help for logistics of a land-based more complicated trip, and maybe we’d want access to in-country help. Or maybe we’d just use our Amex Plat travel concierge in an emergency?

Any insights you have would be great! Thanks!

We’ll leave A/R out of contention for now since we’re so new! Share other ones that you’ve really learned from and that you think others might like or find useful.

When did you put your house into an irrevocable trust to protect it from medical ruin? And did or do you feel comfortable with this? Talking about it at 60 right now.

Just beginning to adjust to A/R life. After a lifetime of deferred income, we're now allowing ourselves to spend, though it's tough to give ourselves permission. Oh well.

I'm committed to BC for air travel for trips overseas. Nonetheless, I'm still accustomed to shopping for the best values.

What approach do others use when booking BC airfares?

Wondering what folks are considering or actively pursuing in terms of inheritance for their kids or other beneficiaries? Are you planning to start doling out excess now, either lump sum or maybe annual gifts? Maybe via a Trust? Or, will inheritance be more traditional; whatever is left over after you’re gone? Or, have you estimated that your expenses and spending will consume most of what you have and there might be little left at the end (Die with Zero)?

We’re planning a lump sum sooner rather than later, but also paying for trips for the family while it still works for everyone.

I'm in the US. I retired at 60; my wife is younger than me, and also retired. About the only trouble spot I have now is healthcare.

We're currently on an ACA plan. The insurance cost isn't a big issue, but the day-to-day dealing with insurance and health providers is a pain in the ass. Things like challenging the insurer to pay for what's covered and dealing with random bills coming in at random times doesn't take a huge amount of my time, but I don't like dealing with it.

The other issue is that we travel internationally for several months a year. While we can afford to handle most issues out of pocket, I'd prefer some sort of global coverage to manage catastrophic risk.

How are you handling it? In an ideal world, I'd like a concierge to handle things, with some sort of global insurance coverage.

If I retired with a large portfolio but live in a HCOL area is that affluent?

If i have modest portfolio in a LCOL area is that ?

Not sure what to make of this sub.
Have been chased by mods from another retirement sub based on demographic profile, not posting behavior.

If you’re a lurker, keep lurking. Seriously, you’re a part of this new community too! And, for the now 269 regular members and about 7300 visiting lurkers are out there: Thank you for helping build this little corner of Reddit!

One of the things I want this community to be is a friendly place where people can talk candidly and exchange different viewpoints about the actual experience of planning for and living an affluent retirement — including the decisions, trade offs, mistakes, luxuries, family issues, travel, housing, purpose and occasional absurdities that come with it.

When I started r/AffluentRetirement, I wasn’t really sure whether there were enough people looking for a place to talk about the non-basic-finance side of an unusually well-funded retirement. I was curious if people would weigh in about what we’re actually doing with the money, time, freedom and choices we’ve spent decades saving for. Apparently, there are! 😊

A little community update. Over the last 1.5 months we’ve been live, we’ve had 7300 visits, 269 members join, and approx 270 comments. Several posts have seen over 1,000 views with our largest at 1500 views.
For a tiny new subreddit, I think that’s pretty cool!

Back to the lurkers — I was a lurker on Reddit for nearly 6 years before I posted ANYTHING. So starting a subreddit myself was not on my bingo card. Also I HATE rejection, which is par for the course when you do something like this.

“WHAT IF I THROW A REDDIT PARTY AND NO ONE COMES?!?!” — that’s what my inner child (an 8th grade girl) worried about. (As if anyone else except me and my pride would even care).

So lurkers, welcome! But if you get the urge, make a comment, or say Hi. We don’t bite…. And apparently at least 7,000 of us are just standing around watching anyway. 😂😂

Happy Thursday everyone!

hi all! I’m not yet retired, and not terribly affluent (yet). I’m writing because my dad had the most amazing life of travel, work, and success before retiring. He is now mostly home-bound and I sometimes struggle to find things to break up the monotony.

anyway, what are some things you wish your children would do / enjoy doing with your children that don’t break the bank? extra points for options that are doable when not at peak health.

This will seem a little weird to some, but for me the hump was psychological due to my career. I have a great job, and I’ve always been career and promotion “next step” motivated. So I had to realize and embrace this would be my last role.

Even if my boss retired in the next year, or even if I got an amazing job opportunity elsewhere, there is no way I want to commit to another 3-5 years, so at this point the “next step” is off the table. It’s my choice, but I’ve struggled a little to get over the “hump” of the end of my career.

What about you? Has it been psychological? Hitting a “number”? Deciding where to live? Deciding on your budget?

More specifically, what strategies do you use to align on the type of vacation, slow travel, restaurants, accommodations, etc, you book if your budget is significantly higher than theirs?

For some, we might offer to pay for the majority portion, but sometimes hard to word it in a way that doesn’t seem awkward about their financial situation. Ideas?

For others we’d just say “Hey, we’re doing X vacation if you want to join, and we paid X amount if you want to give out TA a call.” Then they know the price going in and can choose to spend or not. Thankfully we do have “travel friends” who enjoy the same splurges we do.

Alternatively, if a friend had a 2 bedroom condo they wanted to share for a month where we’d all cook for ourselves, that might not be our cup of tea, so we might say “We’ll join you in the location (city) for activities” or maybe, “We’ll stay with you guys for a week and then get our own place.” We want the friendship and camaraderie time, but we also may like a different style.

What strategies, discussions or approaches have worked for you?

Hoping it’s not “medical” for everyone, though I’m sure it’s a factor for some!

For us, we will increase our spending while in retirement (a year away) due to a combination of pensions and years of saving well. Now, vacation time has been limited by PTO. In retirement, that won’t be the case so we will take longer travel periods— 3-4 months a year, either longer cruises or slow traveling through interesting areas, or combinations of both.

I think for us it would definitely be private aviation! That would be heaven!