A couple does not have one universal corpus target. Shared spending can differ from two individual budgets, while retirement dates, longevity, assets, liabilities, goals, and income may remain different for each person.
Quick answer
Build the household scenario from:
- combined essential spending
- each person's retirement age
- a household horizon/longevity assumption
- existing retirement assets and ongoing contributions
- pensions or other contractual income
- individual and joint liabilities and goals
- healthcare assumptions and policy terms
- life-protection needs created by dependants or liabilities
Retirement planning requires a horizon/longevity assumption, and actual lifespan can differ.
Spending and timing
Record shared and individual costs instead of applying a fixed sharing ratio. If retirement dates differ, model contributions and earned income for each period explicitly.
Assets and income
Identify which assets are individually owned, jointly available, restricted, or intended for another goal. Record pensions and annuity payments according to their actual contractual terms rather than assuming one joint income layer.
Protection remains needs-based
Life-cover needs depend on household support needs, liabilities, goals, usable assets, existing cover, and the support period. Health-cover analysis depends on covered members, policy limits and exclusions, employer cover, treatment-cost assumptions, and out-of-pocket capacity. No fixed cover amount or product structure applies to every couple.
Tax eligibility, if relevant, depends on the applicable regime, statutory conditions and available deduction headroom.
Assumptions and allocation
Inflation, return, withdrawal, and horizon values are scenario assumptions, not forecasts. Allocation depends on time horizon, spending flexibility, contractual income, liquidity needs, loss tolerance, and asset roles. This article does not assign a split to either spouse.
Constant-return projections do not capture sequence-of-returns risk.
Illustrative scenario
Illustrative scenario: enter separate retirement ages, one stated household horizon, combined spending, each person's assets and contributions, contractual income, liabilities, goals, and explicit inflation, return, and withdrawal assumptions. Compare several cases without converting the output into a universal couple benchmark.
Common mistakes
- Applying one joint corpus target to every couple.
- Assuming spending is a fixed multiple of one person's budget.
- Prescribing assets or contribution targets by spouse.
- Ignoring different retirement dates, longevity, or ownership restrictions.
What to do next
Use Retirement Readiness with household inputs, then review ownership, nomination, policy terms, and tax treatment separately where relevant.