One of the most overlooked areas of retirement planning is estimating what health care costs could be in retirement, and including this in the calculation of income needs.  Fidelity estimated that a 65-year-old married couple that retired in 2012 will incur an average of $240,000 in healthcare costs alone in retirement.  By overlooking this large potential outlay, retirees could feel strapped for cash in their most vulnerable years.

Often, people assume Medicare will cover these expenses in retirement but this simply is not true.  Medicare costs to retirees are rising each year so it’s important to know what to expect.