How Much Do Retirees Actually Spend a Month? (Government Data)

Do retired households really spend $5,000 a month? Every year, the Labor Department's spending survey asks thousands of households what they spend, from groceries and doctor bills to the car and the birthday check for a grandchild. This video puts one average month for a retired household on a single receipt, line by line, using the full-year 2024 numbers. In this video: • Housing: the biggest line, even though most retired homes have no mortgage • Getting around, food and health care: what each line costs • Health insurance vs. groceries, and which one pulls ahead after 75 • The smaller lines: gifts and donations, entertainment (pets too), clothes • The bottom of the receipt, and how close it comes to $5,000 • Living alone vs. two or more people • 2015 vs. 2024: which lines grew faster than prices • Retired homes vs. households in their late fifties and early sixties • How much of the receipt Social Security covers • Which age group gives away the most money CHAPTERS 0:00 One month on one receipt 1:05 Line 1: housing 1:58 Line 2: getting around 2:34 Line 3: food 2:49 Line 4: health care 3:31 The smaller lines 4:00 The bottom of the receipt 4:34 Living alone vs. two or more 4:56 2015 vs. 2024 5:28 Retired homes vs. ages 55 to 64 6:10 What Social Security covers 6:30 Spending after 75 7:31 Which age group gives the most? 8:11 One last look SOURCES U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (Labor Department), Consumer Expenditure Surveys, calendar-year tables 2015 to 2024: https://www.bls.gov/cex/tables.htm Consumer Expenditure Surveys home page and definitions: https://www.bls.gov/cex/ BLS Public Data API (series CXU…LB1209M for retired households, CXU…LB0402M to LB0409M by age, CXU…LB0702M and LB0704M for households with no earners): https://www.bls.gov/developers/ BLS Consumer Price Index (CPI-U annual averages, 2015 and 2024): https://www.bls.gov/cpi/ How it was counted: The Consumer Expenditure Survey is run for the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics. "Retired households" are the survey's "retired" group: households whose reference person (the person who owns or rents the home) reports being retired. In 2024 that was about 30.3 million households, with an average age of 74 and about 1.8 people per home. Every amount is a 2024 annual average divided by 12. The survey publishes averages, not medians, so many households spend much more or much less. Housing includes property taxes, upkeep, repairs, home insurance, utilities, rent, mortgage interest, furnishings, household supplies, household services and travel lodging. Car purchases are averaged over every household, whether or not it bought a car that year. "Insurance & deductions" is life insurance plus Social Security and retirement-plan deductions from paychecks. Health care is what households pay themselves (insurance, including payments to Medicare, plus services, drugs and supplies), not what Medicare pays. Social Security income is the survey's own figure per retired household, counted together with Railroad Retirement. Comparisons by age (55 to 64, 65 to 74, 75 and older) cover all households in each age group, retired or not. "Living alone vs. two or more people" uses households with no earners. Price growth is the change in the CPI-U annual average from 2015 to 2024 (about 32%). These are the full-year 2024 numbers, the newest available when this video was made. The 2025 numbers are due at the end of October 2026. This channel is educational only and is not financial, tax, legal or investment advice. Old Man Miller is a fictional animated narrator, not a financial advisor. Research and script by the channel's creator. #retirement #retirementspending #retirees