The Truth About Wasteful Spending in Retirement | A 60-Year-Old Sorts Want from Need

— What I stopped buying, what I kept buying, and what I am still arguing with myself about.

What counts as wasteful spending in retirement? After 40 years of paychecks I sat down with a notebook and wrote every yen I spent for one month. Most of it was habit, not happiness. The cure is not cutting everything. It is choosing what makes a Tuesday feel different from a Monday.

The first month after I stopped getting paid

Forty years of paychecks. Then they stopped.

People say retirement is great, freedom, do what you want. Nobody tells you what it feels like the first time you look at your bank account and realize the number is going to go down from now on, slowly, every month, for the rest of your life. That feeling has a name. The name is fear.

So I sat down at the kitchen table with a notebook and started writing down everything I spent for one month. Not the big things. The small things. The 500 yen on a convenience store coffee. The vending machine on the way home from a walk. The book I bought and never opened.

What I found I was buying out of habit

The list embarrassed me. Forty years on the factory floor, you learn to be careful with tools. You do not waste material. But with money in retirement, I had been wasting it without noticing, every day, in small ways.

• Convenience store food I did not need because the supermarket was too far.
• Apps with subscriptions I forgot I signed up for.
• New clothes I bought because the old ones felt old, not because they were worn out.
• Books that looked interesting in the bookstore and lived on the shelf, unread.
• Cable TV channels I never watched.

None of these were big. Each one was 500 yen, 1000 yen, 2000 yen. But added up, they were eating my retirement savings.

Want versus need, the boring old question

Everyone knows this question. Want versus need. It sounds like something from a self-help book. But at 67, with no salary coming in, it stopped being a slogan and became a tool. A tool I had to actually use, every day, before I bought anything.

I made my own rough rule. Before buying anything over 1000 yen, I wait one week. If after one week I still want it, I think about it again. Most of the time, I forgot I wanted it.

What I decided to keep spending on

This is the part most “save money in retirement” articles forget. Cutting is easy. Cutting too much is depressing. You can save so much that life becomes a small grey room. That is not living. That is just waiting.

So I made a short list of things I will keep spending on, even if a financial planner would tell me to cut them.

• Good coffee at home. Not the cheapest beans. The ones I actually like.
• One nice meal out, once a month, with my wife.
• Books I will read, not books I will look at.
• Trains to visit my grandkids.
• One small concert or movie a month.

These are not big. But they are the things that make a Tuesday feel different from a Monday. In retirement, every day starts to look the same. Spending money on the things that make a day feel like itself is not waste. It is the opposite of waste.

The hardest cut I made

I had a hobby for many years. I will not say which one because it would identify me. Let me just say it cost me about 30,000 yen a month, every month, for over a decade. I told myself it was my one thing. Everyone needs one thing.

When I retired, I had to look at that 30,000 yen honestly. The truth is, I had not really enjoyed it for years. I kept paying for it out of habit, out of the identity of being someone who did that thing. Cutting it was harder than cutting anything else, because it meant admitting something about myself had changed.

I cut it. The first month felt strange. The second month felt freer. By the third month I had forgotten about it.

What I am still arguing with myself about

I have not figured out everything. There are still things I cannot decide.

Insurance, for example. I have policies I have paid into for 30 years. Are they worth keeping? Probably not, by the numbers. But the thought of cancelling them makes my hand shake. I will write about that another time.

My car. I drive maybe twice a week now. Selling it would save a lot. But it is also my freedom card. The day I sell my car is the day I become someone who has to ask for rides. I am not ready.

What is the biggest mistake most people make regarding retirement?

The biggest mistake is buying out of habit. After 40 years of regular paychecks, you do not notice the 500 or 1000 yen things adding up. You buy because that is what you used to do, not because you actually want them.

The cure is writing every yen down for one month. Not for a budget. For honesty. Once you see it on paper, you know which things you would miss and which you would not.

If you are about to retire, or just did

One month of writing down what you spend will tell you more than any retirement book ever will. Not because the numbers are interesting. Because you will see, in your own handwriting, what you actually value. And what you do not.

Most of the money I was wasting was not making me happy. It was just running through my fingers because I had been earning a paycheck for so long that I forgot money was finite.

Now it is finite. And so, slowly, I am learning to choose.

FAQ

How much should I cut from my budget when I retire?

I cannot give a number. I write down every yen for one month, then ask which things I would miss and which I would not.

Is it worth canceling old insurance policies after retirement?

I have not decided about mine. I have paid in for 30 years. The numbers say cancel, but the feeling says wait.

Should I cut everything I do not need in retirement?

No. Cutting too much is just as wrong as spending too much. Keep the small things that make a Tuesday feel different from a Monday.

Should I sell my car in retirement?

I drive twice a week and have not sold mine. It is my freedom card. The money saved is not worth giving that up yet.

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— Me-me