Depending only on Social Security in retirement is a big mistake, IMHO. On average, social security replaces about 40% of pre-retirement earnings. The balance needs to be made up from savings or withdrawals from retirement accounts.
However, the other issue is that expenses don't go down much in retirement and in some cases even go up. House mortgage and expenses, real estate taxes, utilities, maintenance, and car payments remain the same. Health insurance goes up, significantly if one still had dependent children, since it may have been subsidized by the employer. Medical costs may also be higher over time. Finally, travel and vacations tend to result in higher spending.
In our case, health insurance and real estate taxes alone use up 83% of my Social Security benefit. Fortunately, we don't have a mortgage nor a car payment. If we did, those payments would cause us to exceed my Social Security benefit.
Of course everyone's situation is different and YMMV. Our retirement expenses are higher due to having dependent children in our household, which is not the case for many retirees. However, for planning purposes, it may be prudent to have about 60% of retirement spending come from a different source than Social Security.
This is not financial nor retirement advice. Please consult a professional advisor.
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