If you've been an aggressive saver during your working years, it's probably going to be a challenge to be a spender in your retirement years. In fact, there's a pretty good chance you'll leave an estate that is as large as your savings were at the start of retirement. I think there are two forces at play that affect this situation. The first one is that we will probably want to spend the same amount in retirement as we did when working (let's say the last 10 years of working). But, if you've been a good saver it's likely that you are also a person(s) that value the accumulation of wealth. And that's why you may struggle to spend your savings in retirement.
Sometimes savings is directly related to funding a specific retirement income goal (an amount per year for some number of years). More often I think we save without knowing how much to save. The problem with retirement is that we don't know how long we'll live, and we don't know if and when we might be faced with a large expense (likely medical). So we spend cautiously. That's not a problem if we are truly enjoying our lives, or we have a goal to leave an inheritance. My sense is that many people don't have a good perspective on their spending guidelines. The point isn't to spend it all and then die. Conversely, it also isn't to save it all then die. My advice.... go get guidelines on how much discretionary spending you have. Guidelines should provide you reasonable probabilities for discretionary spending amounts in retirement that considers longevity and medical variables. You can still determine how much to save and how much to spend. But, importantly you'll have an idea of where you stand.
Sometimes savings is directly related to funding a specific retirement income goal (an amount per year for some number of years). More often I think we save without knowing how much to save. The problem with retirement is that we don't know how long we'll live, and we don't know if and when we might be faced with a large expense (likely medical). So we spend cautiously. That's not a problem if we are truly enjoying our lives, or we have a goal to leave an inheritance. My sense is that many people don't have a good perspective on their spending guidelines. The point isn't to spend it all and then die. Conversely, it also isn't to save it all then die. My advice.... go get guidelines on how much discretionary spending you have. Guidelines should provide you reasonable probabilities for discretionary spending amounts in retirement that considers longevity and medical variables. You can still determine how much to save and how much to spend. But, importantly you'll have an idea of where you stand.