One of the most valuable exercises that clients go through is a bottom-up and top-down review of their expenses. By this I mean that clients who self-evaluate their expenses (bottom-up) tend to under-estimate their expenses by a significant degree. To provide a more accurate estimate, I do a top-down assessment by working backwards based on income and net savings. This article underscores the importance of having an accurate understanding of your expenses before retirement; although I believe that it doesn’t emphasize the very real phenomenon of “lifestyle creep”.