Family expenditures before and after retirement: a research model for measuring priorities

Economic pressures of contemporary American society have had an impact on many families. This article focuses on how elderly, intact couples allocated their retirement dollars. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) family budget expense categories were used as a basis to develop expense categories. The couples were asked what changes, if any, they made in expenditures after retirement and if they would allocate their money differently if they were free to do so. Most of them had changed expenses after retirement. Some of their expenditures had increased rather than decreased in importance since retirement. Only two expenditure categories, food and transportation, were ranked the same as the BLS ranking by at least 30 percent of the couples. The empirical usefulness of the methodology reported in this paper was illustrated with a sample of elderly couples. However, it seems applicable not only for the elderly but also for families in all stages of the family life cycle.