Start with the household spending picture.
Stage 1 builds the household spending picture behind later retirement scenarios: essentials, lifestyle choices, and the income target your super and possible Age Pension estimates may need to support.
This is Stage 1 of your epic retirement plan
Household expenses planner
Split the household into essentials and nice to have. You can enter either the monthly or annual figure for each line and the other column will update automatically.
Essentials
Core living costs, transport, property, health, and household running costs.
More essentials
Extra regular household costs, so the essentials sit across both columns.
Nice to have
Flexible lifestyle items, gifts, travel, and discretionary spending.
👁 Why Stage 1 matters
👁 What to enter
Put in the household essentials and the nice-to-have spending using monthly or annual amounts.
You do not need perfect numbers on day one. Reasonable estimates are enough to start.
👁 Why we ask for it
This planner builds the real lifestyle cost that later stages test against super, pension, and retirement timing.
Without a spending picture, the retirement income target is just a guess.
👁 What it feeds
The spending total becomes the income target that later stages test against super, bridge years, and Age Pension pressure.
Cleaner spending inputs make the final PDF easier to explain and check.
👁 Estimates are enough to start
When spending is vague, retirement targets get vague too. A simple expenses picture makes every later assumption easier to review.
Start with reasonable numbers and tighten them later.